The Color Pink
by DaMastah101
Summary: Meet Harold Meyer, a diligent and upstanding boy who helps out his family in running their bakery. He gets the surprise of his life, when a certain pink-haired girl enters his world. Witness Natsuki and Harold's day-to-day life as they grow alongside each other, and down the road, love blossoms.
1. Chapter 1 - Family

**Disclaimer : DaMastah101 doesn't own DDLC. Ahaha~!**

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When you're the son of a family that runs a pretty known bakery in your neighborhood, sometimes days could get pretty exhausting due to the workload.

Such was the case with a certain teen named Harold Meyer.

Harold was a pretty diligent boy for his age. He was currently eighteen years old, and yet he was mature enough to understand the importance of practicality and profit. Together with his parents, their family bakery thrived within the neighborhood and business was booming wonderfully.

He was also able to balance his schoolwork with helping out the bakery. Since his classes ended at around 4-ish in the afternoon, and their house was only a mere 8-minute walk from school, this allowed him to still able to help out until the store's closing time. On the weekends, he devoted most of his time working at their family business.

A lot of their regular customers had shown favor towards the boy, due to his polite demeanor and friendly smile, whenever he sold the various pastries and items that their store offered. Bagels, muffins, loaves of bread, you name it.

However, at the end of each day, there was one thing Harold looked forward to the most.

It was when he finally had some free time to play Doki Doki Literature Club, a very popular game for people his age.

He had particularly grown fond of Monika, the club president and a major character in DDLC. Having already finished the game once, he had decided to play through the game once more and leave it on Act 3, which happened to be the infamous "Just Monika" scenario of the game. Even though some of the dialogue repeated, he didn't get tired of listening to whatever Monika had to say. Her insight always astounded him, and he was deeply impressed on how well-written her character was, once you took the time to listen to everything she told you.

His fatigue also seemed to wash away whenever he stared into those wonderful emerald green eyes. If he were being completely honest, you could say Harold was smitten.

To be honest, Harold liked all of the girls in DDLC. In his opinion, all of them were wonderful girls that had their own charms.

Well, all except for one.

He wasn't particularly fond of the game's resident pink-haired tsundere. The smallest among the girls in terms of physique, while at the same time having the loudest mouth.

Natsuki.

It was pretty ironic, considering that his family was well-versed in the art of pastry-making. Natsuki happened to be the game's resident baker, and DDLC even establishes this fact early on in the story, when the MC gets lured by Sayori into joining the club with Natsuki's patented cupcakes. Yet for some reason, he didn't really like the girl.

In his honest opinion, she was too temperamental and high maintenance. Sure, he understood that Natsuki's backstory involved being physically and emotionally abused by her father. And he felt really bad for the girl because of that. But it didn't change the fact that Natsuki was the least desirable girl among the four of them in his opinion. Then again, he was a Monika fan at heart. So it might've been the bias that was talking.

He had to admit though, even if Natsuki was last place in his Doki rankings, she was pretty cute. If only her attitude was as attractive.

"Phew! I'm beat. Oh well, at least we had a good haul today."

It was true. As Harold sat on his computer desk's office chair, he smiled to himself. There were a lot of customers today, and the sales quota was not only met, but exceeded by three times too! Business was pretty good for the Meyers. Hopefully, it would continue being like that for the rest of the month at least.

Stretching his arms a bit, he then boots up his computer and starts up Doki Doki Literature Club. He is once again greeted by the familiar space classroom, as well as Monika's unwavering gaze.

As he read Monika's usual lines, he felt his eyelids slowly dropping. He was getting pretty sleepy. Harold tries to shake off the drowsiness and continues reading Monika's dialogue.

However, his resistance proved to be futile and he ended up dozing off in front of his computer.

After some time had passed, he slowly stirs from his sleep. He could faintly hear the sound of a voice calling out to him.

"w...ke ...lready..."

Harold gradually wakes up and the voice started to become clearer. It was a girl's voice.

"Wake up already! How long are you going to sit your butt over there! It's rude to keep a girl waiting."

The boy, now fully awake, tried to search for the owner of the voice. His eyes landed on a petite girl, who was currently sitting on his bed. She had strikingly noticeable pink hair.

"Finally. Jeez, how tired were you to be able to sleep that soundly?"

"...Pardon?"

"Look buster, I'm just as confused as you are. Just a couple of minutes ago, I was trying to convince Yuri that manga counted as literature, when all of a sudden I found myself transported to... wherever this place is." the girl performs a wide gesture with her arms, as if trying to illustrate her point.

Harold, too stupefied at what was transpiring in front of him, could only blink and say a few words in response.

"Uh... huh."

"I was hoping you could fill me in on what's happening. That's why I kept on waking you up. In fact, who the hell are you?"

"H-Harold. Harold Meyer. And I know that your name is Natsuki."

The pink-haired girl's eyes widen a bit at the mention of her name, before settling back into an indifferent look. "Harold Meyer. What a plain name befitting someone like you."

"That's pretty rude..." the boy mutters to himself, hoping that Natsuki wouldn't hear him. Fortunately, she shows no sign of doing so.

"But more importantly, how do you know my name? I've never told you and we haven't even met before. And why am I here instead of the clubroom?"

After getting over his shock, Harold regains his composure.

Well, he tried to remain calm on the outside at least. Inwardly, he was still pretty awestruck at the sudden turn of events.

His least favorite girl from Doki Doki Literature Club, just happened to appear in his bedroom. Maybe it was a lack of sleep, or maybe he was too tired and his eyes started seeing things? Still, why couldn't it have been Monika instead?

"I'll... explain stuff to you. Just wait here for now. You could read some of my books on that bookshelf over there, or use my computer I guess. I just need to take care of some things for a quick moment before we discuss your situation." Harold tells the girl, who just glares at him but silently complies anyway.

Harold then goes out of his bedroom, leaving Natsuki alone to her thoughts.

"There better be a good reason why I'm in this dump all of a sudden." she remarks when the boy was out of earshot.

Around fifteen minutes later, Harold comes back. He had brought his parents with him.

"See, there she is. I'm not joking mom! She's really here. Dad, you believe me right?" he asks the two adults, who just stood there. Dumbstruck.

"Harold... how is this possible?" the boy merely shakes his head in reply. He literally had no idea. The matriarch then turns to the other male.

"Dear, do you have any idea what might've caused this fictional character to appear in our son's room?" Carol Meyer, the mother of the family questions out loud, while looking at her husband for answers.

"I'm not sure honey, maybe all three of us are just a bit too tired from today's work..." Jonathan Meyer replies with a clueless shrug. The boy's father didn't really have any hypothesis on this either. He was just as bewildered as his wife and son.

"Hey! I'm right here you know! I would appreciate it if you three didn't talk about the topic of your discussion when she's nearby." Natsuki huffs and heatedly stares at the Meyer family, causing all three of them to glow red in embarassment.

Carol is the first to apologize to the girl. "Sorry about that sweetie, we were just a bit shocked about this. We know all about the game our son is playing, Doki Doki Literature Club. He talks about it quite a bit at our bakery and my husband and I did a little research about it. Your name is Natsuki, right? I recognize you from one of the screenshots found on Google."

"Y-yeah, my name is Natsuki. But what did you mean when you said I'm a fictional character? And what is this ' _Doki Doki Literature Club_ ' thing you just mentioned...?"

Jonathan places a hand on Natsuki's shoulder. "Don't worry little girl, we'll get you up to speed on what you need to know."

And so, the following hour consisted of Harold, Carol and Jonathan explaining to Natsuki that she was part of a video game. That she had come from Harold's computer. Everything she knew, Yuri, Sayori, Monika, the literature club, and everything else were all part of the game called Doki Doki Literature Club.

Harold even took the extra mile and started a fresh new game of DDLC.

"Go on, play it Natsuki."

The confused girl could only obey the request, and she starts to play Act 1 of the game. She was already pretty convinced at this point about what the family had been telling her, due to how accurate the game was in depicting Sayori as she greeted the player. There was also the fact that the game seemed to chronicle events that she indeed knew to be part of her memories.

She finally reaches the first scene that she appears in. She reads the text that appears in front of her.

"Seriously? You brought a boy? Way to kill the atmos...phere..." Natsuki gasps before looking at the Meyers. There was no denying it this time. She vividly remembered this exact scene as the time that the new guy joined their club. Carol and Jonathan smiled sadly at her, clearly sympathisizing with Natsuki, while Harold just shrugged. The boy stood up and went over to his computer.

"It's true... I'm just a video game character..." Natsuki says in a dull voice, losing her will to even move. She glances at Harold.

"Harold, was it?" the defeated girl asks the boy who was in the middle of closing the game and turning off his PC in order to save electricity.

"Yep. What is it, Natsuki?"

"Thank you for telling me what I needed to know. Thank you as well, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer." the two adults merely smile at her in return.

"I think... I'll be going now. I need to find a place to stay and I've been intruding for a while now in your son's bedroom... sorry for the trouble." she mumbles and prepares to exit the bedroom when suddenly, Jonathan stops her.

"Hold it right there young lady, we here at the Meyer household aren't going to let a sweet little girl like you sleep out on the streets."

"Huh?" the pink-haired girl asks out of confusion.

Carol chimes in. "He's right, from now on, you'll be staying with us! If that's okay with you, of course. Haha." She offers with a kind and warm smile at the girl, who currently remained frozen in her spot, flabbergasted.

"But... won't I be a burden to all of you? I mean, you mentioned that the three of you were running a bakery. I wouldn't want to add onto your problems."

"We'll be fine, sweetie. We'd be more than happy to add one more member to our humble family. Isn't that right, Harold?" the kind mother reassures the girl.

The boy in question merely grunts uncharacteristically from his usual polite self. "Fine, I guess."

He really would've liked it if it were Monika instead of freaking Natsuki. Even Yuri or Sayori would've been better. But no, it had to be this girl. Harold was having trouble hiding his disappointment.

Natsuki senses this and interjects. "Your son doesn't seem too thrilled to have me here though-"

"You can't prove that." The boy says indignantly, but mentally he agreed. The prospect of having Natsuki live with him 24/7 wasn't that enticing for him.

"-so I think I should go. I do appreciate the offer though. Thanks." The pink-haired girl once again makes a move towards the exit but merely gets halted yet again.

"Please do reconsider Natsuki, we'd really love it if you'd stay with us..." Jonathan tells her with a sad look on his face. Natsuki, not having the heart to disappoint the patriarch, returns to her prior spot on Harold's bed with a faint blush.

"And besides, Harold over here wouldn't be a problem. He'll warm up eventually. Isn't that right, son?" Carol smiles sweetly while giving Harold a one-armed hug.

"Eh... I don't know mom..."

"ISN'T THAT RIGHT, SON?" she repeats with emphasis, her left eye twitching a bit. The boy looks at his father for support but Jonathan was merely giving his wife the thumbs up of approval.

"Ugh, fine..." Harold finally concedes and Natsuki remains silent at the entire exhange, not really knowing what she could've said at that moment.

Jonathan looks visibly elated after hearing that. "Great! Then it's settled. Welcome to the family, Natsuki. Group hug!" the jolly patriarch declares and soon, all four of them were locked in a warm embrace, Harold and Natsuki both being unwilling participants in the sudden show of affection.

And thus, all seemed right in the world.

It was decided that Natsuki's room would be the currently unused guest room that they had. Since she didn't really have any personal belongings with her, or clothes for that matter aside from the school uniform that she was wearing, the Meyers would take her out for some necessary shopping tomorrow. In the meantime, Natsuki had been given some supplies to use by Carol.

An excited Jonathan also gave the girl a mini-tour of the Meyer household, showing her basic stuff such as where the fridge was or where to get some toilet paper if the bathrooms ran out. He loved being a doting father, and Natsuki was already warming up to the family quickly.

She was pretty excited to see the family bakery with her own eyes too, after their planned shopping trip tomorrow. Natsuki was a baker at heart after all, and she wanted to have the Meyers try her signature cupcakes too.

The pink-haired tsundere was a lot smaller than Carol, which meant that the clothes she were given were quite loose on her. But it would have to do for now until she could get proper clothing.

During all of this, Harold remained lying on his bed. In his mind, he had been going over everything that happened today.

"I guess it can't be helped. Natsuki's going to live here now, who would've thought?"

Sighing to himself, he stares at his ceiling. He really would've liked it better if Monika would've been the one to come out of his computer instead of Natsuki, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would have to start getting used to Natsuki's presence around him, and the fiery temperament that she brought with her.

That's right, the upcoming days were surely going to be a test of his patience and fortitude.

What Harold Meyer didn't know at the time however, was that this was the start of something beautiful.

 **-END-**

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 **A/N : Here's a little something I whipped up on a whim, and isn't meant to be taken seriously at all unlike my other fanfic, "The World Beyond The Screen".**

 **This time, instead of the usual "Monika gets out of the game and becomes lovey-dovey with the player" trope, I tried something a little different.**

 **Like I mentioned above, this story isn't meant to be taken too seriously. I mean, I even had the parents of the protagonist already accept the appearance of a game character in reality, without too much fuss lmao. That being said, I might crank out more of this in the future, if people happen to like it.**

 **That's all I wanted to say for now, thanks for reading!**

 _ **EDIT: February 06, 2018, 6:33 AM Central Time - Corrected several typos and misused words.**_


	2. Chapter 2 - New Beginning

**Disclaimer : I bet you guys wish Monika was the one handling the disclaimers, like in TWBTS. I offered her to do it in this fanfic too, but she declined. So yeah. You get plain old author-san. Also, it goes without saying, but I don't own DDLC.**

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 **[Chapter 2 - New Beginning]**

Dinner was quite awkward for Harold, to say the least.

The four of them were currently in the dining area, with Harold and Natsuki sitting next to each other, while Jonathan and Carol were seated across them.

After saying the grace, they began to partake in the small feast that the boy's mother had prepared with much love. During the meal however, Carol had to comfort Natsuki a bit. The petite girl had started tearing up all of a sudden, due to the warm hospitality she was being shown.

"It's... been so long... *sob* since I've had a decent homecooked meal... *sob*" Natsuki tearfully remarks, a stark contrast from her usual fiery disposition. It was quite saddening.

"Well then, we're gonna have to change that! Eat up lass, there's plenty for all of us!" Jonathan hollers kindly at the pink-haired girl, who started drying up her tears and thanking Harold's parents profusely, before beginning to eat as well with much gusto.

Harold on the other hand, was idly playing with a piece of brocolli on his plate using a fork. He wasn't really that focused on eating. Every once in a while, he'd secretly sneak glances at Natsuki, the girl remained seemingly oblivious to the boy's stare. This went on for quite a while.

"Harold sweetie, is something on your mind?" his mother asks him while passing some of the baked potatoes to her husband.

"It's nothing mom, just a little tired, that's all." Carol didn't pry any further, but merely turns to her husband who shrugs in return. Soon after, they finished the meal, and all of their stomachs were filled to the brim with the goodness that was Carol Meyer's cooking.

Natsuki volunteered that she would be the one to wash the dishes as a token of gratitude. Jonathan voiced his opposition however, claiming that he should be the one to do it since the girl was their guest. This resulted in a lengthy discussion.

After a long back and forth between the two, Harold's father reluctantly relented and let the girl handle the cleaning.

At around 10PM, Harold's parents decided to retire for the evening after saying goodnight to him and Natsuki, leaving the two youngsters in the living room to watch some TV if they still wanted to.

"Just don't stay up too late, you two! We have an early day ahead of us tomorrow." Carol gently tells them, prompting Harold along with Natsuki to simultaneously say "Okay!" in return.

Currently, the teenagers were seated on the couch, several inches apart from each other. It was getting pretty awkward for Harold, yet again.

The boy, wary of spending any more time with his least favorite Doki, prepares to leave while thinking up an appropriate alibi.

Harold passes the controller to the girl, who accepts it quietly. He then stood up and made a beeline to his bedroom door. "Well then Natsuki, it's been a pleasure. I'll be going to bed now. Good night."

Natsuki looks at the boy with surprise. "Wait! You're really gonna leave me out here to watch by myself?!" she huffs at Harold who merely waves her off.

He turns around one last time before looking at the girl. "We have to wake up early tomorrow, so I'm gonna get some shut eye. You can keep watching some TV if you want though, goodnight.* Harold then closes his door on Natsuki, who was still staring at him from the living room's couch.

"G-goodnight..." she abruptly answers back before being rendered speechless. Natsuki got the feeling that Harold really didn't want to be around her, and it somewhat pissed her off quite a bit.

"Hmph! Who needs that guy anyway. I can have a good time all by myself!" she says spitefully to herself before fiddling with the remote control.

After around fifteen minutes of browsing several channels, she shuts off the television in frustration.

"I just wanted to hang out with him a bit... not that I'd ever admit it out loud!"

After making sure that the Meyer household's front door was locked, Natsuki also enters her own assigned room. She changes into a pair of light pink pajamas from among the clothes that Carol had given her. The girl then goes to the bathroom and brushes her teeth. After flossing them clean as well, she returns to her bedroom and closes her door.

She then tries to sleep, plopping herself on top of the vacant bed. Natsuki closes her eyes, hoping that the comforting embrace of sleep would finally claim her. After some time, it finally did.

In the other bedroom, Harold also had trouble sleeping immediately.

"Natsuki's really here with me. I guess I could try to get along with her better. Monika, if only it were you instead..."

Soon after, everyone in the Meyer household was asleep.

Then, came Sunday morning. Even though the bakery was closed on Sundays, Harold still woke up very early at the ungodly hour of 5AM, courtesy of his mother.

"Why are we waking up this early anyway, mom?"

"Your father and I spoke with the town mayor on the phone. We arranged a meeting with him regarding Natsuki's status. She's going to need IDs, a birth certificate, and various documents, and the mayor is probably our best chance to produce such items for her. As far as the world is concerned, she doesn't exist. So we need to fix that as soon as possible. She'll need this stuff when she tries to look for work or enroll in school."

"...I see." the boy nods in acknowledgement. He didn't even think about that stuff yet, but he had to admit that it made sense. However, there was still one thing boggling his mind.

"That doesn't explain why we have to do this very early though, mom."

"Oh, that's because it would be weird for other people who've played the game to see her suddenly in reality. The lesser the people, the better. And there's barely anyone at the Mayor's office during these hours. Once we finish up with the legal stuff, then we can all go shopping at the mall. Natsuki still needs supplies after all. Plus, it'll be a good way to unwind and relax. God knows that the poor girl has been through a lot in that game."

"Hmm, that's true I guess. I'll go get myself ready then."

"We'll be waiting for you in the car. I need to wake up Natsuki now as well."

Soon enough, all four of them were dressed, and Jonathan drove them to their destination. All the while, Natsuki was immensely fascinated with being inside a real car for the first time. It felt a lot different than whatever memories of cars she had from when she was still inside DDLC.

Finally, they arrived. This was going to be a long day, Harold inwardly thought.

How were they going to explain, let alone convince the Mayor, that Natsuki appeared out of thin air from inside a video game into the real world?

 **-Chapter 2 END-**

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 **A/N _:_ Yes I know, I barely gave any proper visualization during the dinner scene. Also I feel like this was a pretty weak chapter, in addition to being painfully short. I'll put out a better Chapter 3 though, sorry!**

 **Thank you for reading Chapter 2 of "The Color Pink".**

 **This random story idea of mine for Natsuki gained a better reception than I expected. Seriously, it's only been 3 days and for some reason I already have 11 Favorites and 17 Follows on this story. Even "The World Beyond The Screen" took at least a week to reach those numbers with its first chapter!**

 **I usually respond to reviews via the built-in PM reply system, but Vanillapowpow's review gets a mention here in the Author's Notes for making me laugh so hard when I read it. Thanks for that awesome play-by-play review lmao.**

 **Having said all that, I might as well continue writing this alongside TWBTS. Speaking of which, Chapter 9 is coming out soon. So for the readers of this fanfic that also read TWBTS, be on the lookout for that!**

 **See you all in the next chapter~**

 _ **Edit: February 10, 2018 5:47AM Central Time, corrected multiple typos.**_


	3. Chapter 3 - Hello World!

**Disclaimer: Something something I don't own DDLC, blah blah blah. Oh, for those who haven't yet, check out Monika's Twitter(her username is lilmonix3)! There's new uploads of OFFICIAL DDLC Valentine's Day art. Monika's is my favorite for obvious reasons, and my God are the pics so beautiful. Monika's though. That posture...**

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 **[Chapter 3 - Hello World!]**

"So let me get this straight. The four of you expect us to believe that this pink-haired girl over here-"

The Mayor's assistant, a tall and lanky man named George Waffle, glances at Natsuki who merely scoffs at his gesture.

"-whose name is Natsuki, came from inside of a game called Doki Doki Literature Club."

"Yes, Mr. Waffle." Carol confirms with utmost sincerity.

"A video game character escaped into the real world. This is an actual thing."

Jonathan scratches his head and chimes in with a bored response. "That's the drift, sonny."

"Don't call me 'sonny'. And then, you people come here to the Mayor's office, requesting for legal documentation of this girl?"

"That's right, Mr. Waffle." Harold timidly replies. He was pretty nervous right now, due to being in the presence of government officials. It was honestly a miracle that Harold wasn't stuttering right now, if his immense nervousness was to be taken into account.

George continues pacing around the room. He then addresses Natsuki directly, while pointing an accusatory finger at her.

"You aren't a cosplayer pretending to be the character? Is your name even Natsuki at all?"

The girl glares at the Mayor's assistant with the burning intensity of a thousand suns. Natsuki's ferocious look was not to be underestimated, no matter how tough you thought you were. This actually caused George to flinch a bit.

"I'm not a freaking cosplayer, you dummy! What a rude thing to say to a girl, did your mother even teach you any manners?"

"W-What?! Don't you speak with that kind of tone at me, young lady! I am a respected government official working directly with the Mayor!"

"You started it, with that huge stick up your ass! I feel bad for the poor Mayor. He has to deal with your irritable self almost every day of the week!"

"I've been researching on your game last night, so you don't have the right to be taking that kind of stance at me, brat. You're the least popular character from Doki Doki Literature Club, AND your chest is the flattest! You're even a shortstack with an attitude way bigger than your head!"

"What do my boobs have to do with this you pervert?!"

"Disrespectful child!"

"Immature government official!"

"Shorty!"

"Talking bamboo stick!"

"Midget!"

"Giraffe!"

"Cease this petty argument this instant! There will be no quarrelling like middle schoolers in my office!" the Mayor bellowed out, causing the bickering pair to stop their vocal outbursts in an instant.

The Meyer family merely sweatdropped at what they just witnessed. 'Natsuki, what the heck are you doing?!' Harold mentally scolds her.

He turns to face his assistant, before speaking. "George, I'll take it from here. Can you please run by these documents for me at Room 24? Sally should be waiting for them there. I'll handle the Meyers' request myself."

"But Mr. Mayor! Are you sure this is alright?"

"I will be the judge of that, George." the Mayor insists, prompting George to bow in respect after recieving a manila envelope. He heads out of the office, but not before glancing at Natsuki and giving her a parting stare of disapproval.

As soon as the door to the office was closed and George was out of earshot, the Mayor breathes a heavy sigh of relief.

"Phew! I thought he'd never leave. I have to apologize for George's behavior, Ms. Natsuki. He means well, but he's very uptight and tends to get all strict and serious to the point where he can come across as rude."

Natsuki, taken aback by the polite and warm demeanor of the Mayor, timidly answers him. "It's f-fine, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for t-taking the time to meet with us."

"My name is Simon Pent. Please, feel free to call me Simon. 'Mr. Mayor' makes me feel so old! Ahahahaha." the now named Simon lets out a hearty chuckle, causing the Meyers and Natsuki to smile at the jovial politician. Harold felt pretty relieved that the Mayor appeared to be the friendly-type.

"Good to see that you're still the same old Simon I know, old friend." Jonathan remarks casually, causing both Harold and Natsuki to stare at the Meyer patriarch in unbirdled surprise. Jonathan shakes hands with Simon, both of them grinning at each other.

"You know the Mayor personally, Dad?!" the boy asks his father, and his mother answers for her husband.

"Yep. Both Jonathan and I were classmates with Simon in high school. We were all part of the same club too!" Carol states in a delighted manner, making Harold nod in acknowledgement.

"If I may ask you Mayor Simon, what club were you and Harold's parents in?" Natsuki inquires with mild curiosity.

"Of course, feel free to ask me about anything! And as for your question, we were members of the school's literature club! It was a fun place indeed. I assume that you get what I mean, seeing as you came from a game that features the same kind of club, right Natsuki?" the kind Mayor elaborates, eliciting a smile from the pink-haired tsundere.

"Now then, getting back to more important matters, you guys are here to get this little sweetheart the documents she needs to properly assimilate into society, right?"

And so, over the course of about two hours, Simon helped the Meyers in sorting out the nuances of Natsuki's legal documentation.

When prompted on what Natsuki wanted as a surname, Harold suggested that she use the name "Salvato". Since Team Salvato were technically her relatives, due to the fact that Doki Doki Literature Club was made by them, it was fitting that she used that as her surname. The girl found no qualms over this, and so she was christened with the full name: "Natsuki Salvato" from this day onward.

They also decided that while the Meyers were going to be Natsuki's guardians, they weren't going to adopt Natsuki in the family. The reason wasn't anything bad, it was quite humorous actually.

"If we adopt little Natsuki here, then Harold can't marry her in the future! So we're intentionally not doing so in order for the lovebirds to have a chance at love, ahahahahahaha~" Carol says teasingly while winking at Harold, who merely blushes in silence.

Natsuki was not as controlled in her embarrassment.

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!" she yells out, causing the boy's parents and the Mayor to laugh at her expense. Their reaction caused her to pout, in a ridiculously cute manner, which only increased their laughter even more.

They went over some other things of importance like voting registration, informing the police of her existence via Simon calling the chief of the local police station, and a short lecture about services such as health insurance.

During all of this, Natsuki had one question on her mind. She decided to voice this out while Jonathan and Carol were discussing with Simon about the girl's current living arrangement.

"Mayor Simon, not that I don't appreciate what you're doing for me. Because believe me, I really do. But I have to ask, why are you so readily helping us out like this? You aren't doubting that I'm really the same Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club like that Waffle guy?"

Harold gives his two cents as well. "I have to agree with her, to be honest. Even if you were friends with my parents, that doesn't really justify how easily you're accepting all of this, Mr. Mayor sir..."

Simon lets out another of his hearty chuckles.

"Come here you two. Jonathan and Carol, you two as well. I'd like to show you four something." he gestures at the Meyer family and Natsuki to come closer. They oblige and the mayor whips out his laptop. It had one of Natsuki's in-game CG images as his wallpaper(it's from the scene where Natsuki reads Parfait Girls with the MC), as well as the icon for DDLC on his Desktop.

"Y-y-you've played my game too?!" Natsuki squeals out in major shock while Harold just stares at the laptop, eyes widened into the size of dinner plates. His parents were already aware that Simon played DDLC like their son, so they weren't shocked.

"Why of course! My daughter told me about this game, so I've been playing it in my spare time. She's about your age too by the way, and I bet you'd get along with her pretty well since she's also into anime and manga like you. Don't tell George about this though, that guy would probably scold me for not taking my job as Mayor more seriously, haha."

The two teenagers could only nod in understanding, both of them not quite sure about what to say.

"And that's why I'm convinced that you're the real Natsuki. No amount of cosplay can be as accurate as you are right now. Humor me though, how did you get out of the game? I'd figure that if someone among the four of you girls would escape the game, it would've been Monika. That is her shtick, after all."

'That's a question I've been asking since yesterday, ugh.' Harold sighs mentally with that thought, but holds his tongue from voicing it out. He didn't want to unnecessarily agitate Natsuki.

"I have no idea. I just found myself in Harold's room all of a sudden. What's weird is that my character is still in the game too. Normally in anime or manga, when a character escapes from a story or a game, traces of their existence in that medium are wiped out too."

Simon turns to Harold's parents for answers but all he gets from the parents are clueless shrugs.

"No dice, huh. Well, I hope you all work it out. Oh and before I forget. Natsuki, your citizenship ID, birth certificate, and other documents will be mailed to the Meyer household in about a week. So in the meantime, you can use this as your verification." the Mayor informs the group while bringing out a letter with his signature. He stamps it in front of them with the seal of the Mayor's office.

"This is a letter confirming that you are indeed Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club, complete with my approval and authorization using the power vested in me as Mayor. While your legal documents are still not in your possession, you can use that letter for stuff that needs identification such as enrolling in school, or finding a job. You can also use this to prove that you aren't a mere cosplayer, because you can bet your ass that people are going to be annoying about that." the Mayor says with a wink.

"You're pretty cool for a politcian, Mayor. I like you." Natsuki and Simon fist bump each other with grins on their faces.

"Thank you so much for this Simon, you've really helped us out." Jonathan shakes hands with Mayor Simon once more, and Carol does the same. Natsuki recieves the official letter and puts it in a folder given to her by Harold's mother.

After saying their goodbyes, the Meyers left the Mayor's office and headed to a nearby diner. Their shopping trip could wait as it was only 7:30 AM, and the mall was likely still closed at that hour. Plus, none of them had breakfast yet.

Thank goodness they were given that official letter. Now, even if people recognized the Doki, Natsuki could merely show them the letter and move around normally without needing to hide.

So what if she was sort of a celebrity right now due to her status? At least she wasn't an illegal citizen anymore. It was better to be upfront about this stuff too, it avoids unnecessary complications.

During the trip, Natsuki and Harold actually chatted with each other rather peacefully. Harold was beginning to warm up to the girl, and vice-versa. They talked about random stuff like baking-related topics, and the latest trends in anime. Harold had a decent amount of knowledge in anime and manga, though not to the same extent as some of his classmates in highschool. Those friends of his were the type to binge watch anime from 9 PM in the evening until sunrise.

'I should try to get along with Natsuki. Enough moping around, I need to accept that she's now part of my life. And besides, she isn't as bad as I thought.' Harold tells himself in his mind while continuing to converse with the pink-haired girl.

Seeing the two interact normally made the boy's parents smile. They didn't say anything to the teenagers who were currently in the backseat, as they didn't want to ruin the moment with ill-timed teasing. And so, the trip to the diner remained a good one.

Upon arrival at the diner, the group planned to order the standard breakfast combintion that consisted of pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, and coffee. Yes, all four of them including Natsuki and Harold ordered coffee.

"Monika keeps rambling about how good coffee is in the morning, so I wanted to try it. Besides, I kinda need it since we woke up so early today." Natsuki states with a smirk, that even Harold found hard not to chuckle at.

The waitress came by to pick up their orders, but gasped in surprise when she saw Natsuki.

"Are you cosplaying Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club? That's so cool! I loved that game!" the young waitress remarks with barely controlled excitement, while the group smiled at her fascination.

"Actually miss... Kate, I'm the real deal. I'm the honest-to-goodness baker of the literature club." Natsuki states slowly at first while reading the waitress' nameplate, before ending her statement proudly, puffing out her chest while flashing a smirk.

"Wow, you're even committed to the role too!" Kate replies with a bright smile, clearly pleased at what she thought was a dedicated cosplayer. That was, until Harold decided to burst her bubble. He addresses the waitress in a serious tone.

"She's telling the truth actually. We just came by from Mayor Simon Pent's office to acquire legal documentation for her, after she poofed into my room yesterday. Natsuki, show her the letter."

The girl brings out the official letter and the poor waitress nearly fainted.

"This is... you're real... I see... ahaha... ahahahahahaha..." clearly disoriented, Kate brings out her notepad to take their orders, the Meyers and Natsuki allowing her a few minutes to compose herself.

After getting over the shock of meeting a Doki in real life, she successfully took their orders, as well as an autograph from Natsuki who was more than willing to oblige. The pink-haired girl saw no harm in it, and it clearly made the waitress' day. Besides, Natsuki was enjoying being popular, for once. As not only Kate had noticed her, but several other people who ate at the dinner saw the spectacle. DDLC was a pretty known game to a lot of them, and this led to Natsuki giving out autographs to several random kids and teens.

Once they finished eating, and after Kate insisted that Harold should take her number until Natsuki could get a phone of her own, they left the diner. The bubbly waitress waved them off from the diner's entrance.

"Text me when you're able to, Natsuki! I'd love to show you around town one day, during my free time!"

"I will Kate! Thanks! It was nice meeting you, and I'll definitely take you up on that offer!"

The day was going swell. Not only did they manage to get the Mayor's help, but Natsuki now had a new friend too in the form of Kate, the lively waitress of the local diner. Things were looking up for Natsuki and the Meyers.

Now that their stomachs were filled with a decent breakfast, the Meyers and Natsuki had quite the day of shopping ahead of them. The mall was about to open soon, and they had a lot of things they needed to buy for Natsuki to settle in properly.

What a lively Sunday indeed. Truly, a fine day for something good to happen.

 **-Chapter 3 END-**

* * *

 **A/N: That was... a chapter. Well, it's at least slightly better and longer than the previous one, ahaha.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews, follows and faves! They mean a lot to me. I love y'all! See you guys in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Progress

**Disclaimer: Generic notice about how I don't own DDLC.**

* * *

 **[Chapter 4 - Progress]**

The shopping trip was pretty eventful so far, to say the least.

It was quite the bustling and crowded area, littered with all sorts of people from different walks in life. The general populace in the establishment ranged from children, to teenagers, to young adults, and even the elderly. All of them doing their own thing, whether it be shopping for supplies, window-shopping for potential purchases, or simply hanging out with other people.

The mall was a place of leisure and various forms of entertainment.

Natsuki and the Meyers strolled throughout the venue, listing off items that need to be bought and the stores that sold them. Carol reasoned that an organized trip would help maximize their time, and so far it was holding true.

First off, Natsuki needed a smartphone. Communication was very important, after all. And basically everyone had a personal smartphone nowadays. She even had one inside of DDLC, but unfortunately she wasn't able to bring it with her into Harold's reality. And so, a necessary purchase was to be made.

Plus, Natsuki would need a phone anyway in order to text keep in touch with her new friend, Kate.

"It's gonna be a pain in the butt, trying to get used to a new phone, but what can I do." Natsuki sighs as she furrows her eyebrows at the reminder of her current situation.

As Harold's parents and Natsuki went off towards the nearby smartphone stall, the boy himself happened to overhear some pretty loud voices quarrelling nearby. Seeing that his companions were preoccupied in discussing what type of phone Natsuki should get, Harold veers off a bit to listen in on the argument he happened to overhear, with mild interest.

Harold saw a small crowd gradually forming around two people. A gruffy looking man, and girl with strawberry-blonde hair. He couldn't see very well amidst the crowd, but the girl pretty much reminded him of Sayori from Doki Doki Literature Club. There was no way of making sure though. But his budding curiosity kept him watching irregardless.

The girl keeps calling out at the man. "Wey?"

Said man, whose name was apparently "Wey", kept brushing off the girl though. He held a very noticeable disposition of annoyance. Then, he swore out quite audibly.

"What? What the fuck do you want?!" Harold saw the man angrily gripping his cigarette, before cutting off the embers of the stick with his palm and throwing it haphazardly on the pavement. After his slight temperamental fit, the angry stranger set his furious gaze on the trembling girl.

"A-are you mad at-" once again, the Sayori-lookalike began to speak but was swiftly interrupted by the rising temper of the unknown man. Harold winced at the glare that the girl was being given. She was surely in for an earful.

"YES! Yes, I am mad at you. I'm fucking pissed!"

The boy then saw the girl flinch timidly while quivering her lip, her eyes beginning to pool a bit of water on the sides, obviously on the verge of getting teary-eyed.

It was a pitiful sight, and the Meyer could only extend his sympathy towards the Sayori-lookalike in silence. He had no stake in this argument after all, and meddling would only bring trouble on himself.

Nevertheless, the man wasn't finished with his furious tirade. "How can you be so stupid?!"

Harold then saw the stranger jankily tapping his palm on his head and abruptly throwing it off. The boy interpreted it as the man gesturing that the girl was empty-headed. It was quite harsh in the Meyer's opinion, but he didn't really know what happened between the two. So he kept his thoughts to himself, as he was merely just another curious onlooker of this spectacle.

"Oi, Harold! What the hell are you doing here meddling with other people's business? Your parents told me to come get you." The boy didn't even notice that Natsuki was already behind him. She gestures at the nearby phone store and they leave the scene.

'I hope that girl is alright. She really does remind me of Sayori in some ways. Too bad I didn't get to see her face though.' Harold spares one last glance at the mystery girl and the furious man, before heading off to the store with Natsuki. His parents were waiting for them by the entrance.

"What were you up to, Harold my boy?" Jonathan asks his son, to which he gets a shrug and a simple response.

"Just saw two people who were kinda fighting I guess."

And with that, the Meyers plus Natsuki continued their little shopping escapade.

After much deliberation, Natsuki finally decided on a pink-colored phone, and even got a matching light-pink case with cutesy Hello Kitty patterns covering its entire body.

Of course, this prompted Harold to snicker a bit.

"That's *snicker* a pretty cute choice, Natsuki *chuckle*. It suits you~"

Turning a light shade of red, Natsuki meekly retorts. "W-what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing bad, haha."

The pink-haired girl pouts a bit, but doesn't say anything further. She had just been recently able to finally land in Harold's good graces. Both she and the boy knew that. So Natsuki had been doing her best to reel in a lot of her brash remarks in order to maintain a nice relationship with the boy.

For some reason, she found herself drawn to the Meyer, due to reasons that she didn't quite understand at all.

And so, the day went by and soon enough, Natsuki had finally been bought the supplies she needed. Various pieces of clothing, amenities, and so on. They even had somehow found a store that sold Natsuki's in-game casual outfit in DDLC. Speaking of which, they had quite the experience during the purchase of that particular piece of clothing...

"Oh look Natsuki sweetie, isn't this the outfit that you wore when you baked cupcakes with the protagonist for the upcoming school festival?" Carol Meyer points at a store window that had a mannequin with the aforementioned outfit.

It was the complete package. The same white shirt with a pink cat logo and pink sleeve-ends, as well as pink linings. A faithful replica of the pink skirt as well. Natsuki and Harold both had to do a double-take at the accuracy.

Their amazement slightly wore off when they realized that the store was a cosplay outfit emporium. That explained why Natsuki's outfit was up for display. Driven by curiosity, the group entered the store with the intent of purchasing the outfit for Natsuki at her insistence.

"Even though it was all just a game, I get some comfort in seeing that some of the stuff I had sorta made it in this reality too, pretty silly of me right?"

Harold places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing silly about feeling a little homesick over your original world, Natsuki."

"T-thanks, Harold..." she meekly responds with a slight blush.

They saw the DDLC uniform as well, and even Sayori and Yuri's casual outfits were up for purchase in the store. Seeing all of this however made Natsuki feel a little bad for Monika. She had read up on everything there was to know about DDLC through Harold's PC yesterday, and it was the little things like this that made her feel quite sorry for her former club president. Maybe it was sympathy. Or pity. She wasn't really sure.

Monika didn't have a route like herself, and she didn't even have any other in-game attire besides the school uniform. She also barely got any screentime in Act 1. And this visit to the mall's cosplay emporium only served as a reminder of those things.

'I guess I could understand a bit why you've done the things you did... I'm still kinda mad though, hmph!' she contemplates in her mind. She was still slightly mad at the emerald-eyed Doki, but she could at least forgive her... somewhat.

Seeing her neck get snapped in Act 2 kinda made her yelp a bit when she first saw that screenshot. It wasn't exactly a pleasing visual for Natsuki.

Nevertheless, she decides to take it all in stride, in her own way.

In the end, the Meyers ended up buying Natsuki's casual DDLC outfit, and they were on their merry way.

With multiple shopping bags now in tow, Harold glances at his wrist watch and notices that it was now a little past noon, 12:17PM to be specific. The group decides to eat at the mall's food court area, and Natsuki was drawn to a food stall that sold Japanese food.

Harold, not wishing for Natsuki to feel a bit left out, decides to have Japanese as well. Both of them ordered two bowls of Chashu Ramen each, while Carol and Jonathan decided to purchase some sandwiches at a Subway stall.

The meal was relatively quiet, most likely due to slight exhaustion from all the walking. There was some slight small talk but other than that, the group of four were busy stuffing themselves with food.

Oh, and the occasional autograph signing every now and then when a passerby would notice Natsuki. They had already lost count of the amount of times that Natsuki had to pull out Mayor Simon's office letter, in order to prove that she was in fact the genuine Doki.

The trip home was pretty much similar to when they were driving towards the mall. Harold and Natsuki were chatting each other up, and various playful lines of "dummy" and "you idiot" could be heard from the pink-haired girl. She had a bright and beautiful smile on her face.

Said smile slowly melting Harold's heart. Yep, he was fully accepting of Natsuki in his life now. His parents were still in the front of the vehicle, merely observing the two as well. While discussing stuff such as the latest issues in politics.

Normal adult stuff that neither Harold or Natsuki had much interest in, as they'd rather maintain their own conversation as well.

And then, they finally arrived back to the house.

For the first time ever in Natsuki's life, she was finally able to say this line with a smile, as she entered the Meyer household once more, holding her shopping bags along with Harold and stating in a very cherrful voice.

"I'm home!"

Harold couldn't help but smile enthusiastically as well, at the sight of his new friend being this happy and full of life.

The remainder of the Sunday was spent organizing Natsuki's newly acquired provisions, and mostly just Harold and the girl hanging out with each other, due to the boy's parents needing to do some errands and restocking for the Meyer family bakery.

Hours later, it was night time once again. Currently, the two young adults were plopped on the couch, watching a rebroadcast of the first episode from an anime series that Harold recommended to Natsuki. It was a light-hearted and warm-filled show called "Yuru Camp", which translates to "Laid-back Camp".

The pink-haired girl was an avid fan of manga and anime after all. So she was pretty excited to watch her first anime in Harold's reality.

"So this anime is about camping and friendship, huh."

"Yep. I figured you'd want something pretty chill first, but has enough heart in it to be compelling. I remembered that you liked the manga "Parfait Girls" within DDLC, so Yuru Camp would be a good starting anime."

"I see..." Natsuki responds lazily, eyes still glued on the glowing television screen.

The young Meyer chuckles a bit, and lets the girl focus her attention on the episode.

'I should've been less hostile and more accepting of her, early on. Natsuki's actually quite... nice.' he inwardly thinks while blushing.

His mind flashes back to his first meeting with Natsuki.

It was only right now, after he'd actually spent a whole day with her, and got to know her better that his initial impression of the girl when she was still in the game had been very off. She wasn't really high maintenance at all, and Harold found out that he actually quite enjoyed her company. Plus, they were both experienced with baking. He was pretty sure that she'd want to be involved with their family business, once his parents take her to see the bakery.

He wouldn't mind that at all. The boy was also a bit curious on how her cupcakes would actually taste in real life, since everyone in DDLC's story regarded the tsundere's confections with high praise.

"Hey, what are you fantasizing about, dummy?" Harold's pondering gets interrupted by a playful punch on his shoulder, courtesy of the girl beside him who was currently flashing him a smirk. Apparently he had been spacing out.

"N-nothing important. Check this out, the following scene here is pretty good actually, you see over there, they..." Harold starts pointing out various things in Yuru Camp's pilot episode, completely steering the topic away from his momentary lapse of awareness.

By the time Jonathan and Carol Meyer had arrived, they were greeted with the sight of Natsuki and Harold on the couch, both fast asleep.

"Look dear, we should take a picture of this!" Carol barely controls her excited squealing as she fished for her phone from her left pocket.

Jonathan smiles as well at the visual before him, snaking an arm around his wife as they took a snapshot of the slumbering figures.

Natsuki's head was resting on Harold's right shoulder, and the boy had his arm draped around the petite girl's body. They were basically cuddling while sleeping, and Harold's parents were delighted at how cute this was.

Carol covers them with a warm blanket, before turning in as well with her husband for some sleep.

"Let's tease them about this in the morning, dear~" the mischevious mother suggests to Jonathan, who also nods in amusement at his wife's antics. Breakfast the following day would be pretty lively, it would seem.

And so, everyone slept peacefully and sound. Within Natsuki's dreamscape, delightful visions of a certain Harold Meyer filled her with much glee.

 **-Chapter 4 END-**

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter has a little cameo of another great DDLC fanfic that I highly recommend. For those who don't get it, read Chapter 5 of Lack of Tact's "Everybody Else is Doing It!" fanfic, with an exclamation point in the title.(He has another DDLC fanfic titled "Everybody ELse is Doing It?" with a question mark at the end. The exclamation point version focuses on Sayori while the question mark version is a Yuri fic. Do check both out!)**

 **Another thing, I apologize for updating this so slowly. I've been putting all of my time in writing TWBTS's upcoming Chapter 12(TWBTS Ch12's word count is clocking in at an estimated 40,000 and more. Yes there's four zeroes in that number, the chapter is pretty goddamn long). *sighs* Still, this story isn't over, far from it actually. And I plan on continuing this alongside TWBTS.**

 **My brain hurts from all of this typing for TWBTS' upcoming chapter, ahaha. So even though I wanted this to be a much longer chapter, this was all I could write for now. In the next update, Jonathan and Carol finally show Natsuki the ropes regarding the bakery, and we get a glimpse of Harold's school life.**

 **Thank you all for reading. See you guys in the next update~**


	5. Chapter 5 - Education

**Disclaimer:** It should be obvious by this point that I claim no ownership over Doki Doki Literature Club, sheesh.

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 **[Chapter 5 - Education]**

The tense atmosphere was so thick, juicy and succulent, you could cut it with a steak knife. Gossip was at an all-time high right now within the hallways of Harold's high school. Students from various year levels were all taking notice of the pink-haired girl, due to the fact that Doki Doki Literature Club was still pretty popular among them.

"Hey, is that really THE Natsuki from Doki Doki?"

"Why is she with that baker kid? And how did he get her out of the game?"

"Monika should be here instead of that annoying brat!"

"Do you guys think she'd sign me an autograph?!"

"Marry me Natsuki! I'll protect your smile!"

...

...

...

Those were some of the various whispers and hearsay that filled the corridors of Maple Leaf High, as Harold and Natsuki stepped through the doors that lead to the school's classrooms. All eyes were on them, and it made the pair a bit nervous as they walked.

It was officially the Doki's first day at the Meyer's school as a new transfer student.

Granted, by "transfer", it meant that Natsuki transferred between realities due to the fact that her former school was inside a video game... the point still stands.

"H-Harold, are you sure this is gonna turn out just fine?"

Smiling nervously himself, he tried reassuring his female friend.

"It'll all work out in the end, I believe s-so."

"Okay, I t-trust you." the girl earnestly replied, while tightly gripping Mayor Simon's letter of proof in her left hand, and Harold's hand in her right. By now her legal documents had already been ratified and were in her possession, but she still kept the letter around for use since it had no expiration, and was definitely helpful still in proving her real identity.

It was her "security blanket" in this world, so to speak.

Well that, and a certain run in with *that guy* lead up to the current circumstances. Nonetheless, it was with his help that Natsuki was able to transfer easily anyway so...

 **(Flashback Start)**

 _"Natsuki, Harold! You two have a guest at the front door!" Carol called out from the living room, while she was folding the laundry that had just been fresh from the dryer._

 _"We'll be right there mom!" Harold responds with Natsuki in tow._

 _Upon reaching the Meyer's front door however, they were greeted with an unexpected visitor._

 _"It's you?! That skinny Waffle jerk from Mayor Simon's office?!" Natsuki exclaimed out loud, after her eyes landed upon the person that was indeed, George Waffle._

 _With a annoyed tick on his forehead, George tried reigning in the snappy comeback that threatened to automatically come from his mouth in an effort to remain professional. He didn't want to tarnish the Mayor's name after all due to an act of public misdemeanor from a public servant._

 _"Why yes, I have indeed graced you with my humble presence, miss Natsuki." he robotically stated, Natsuki's name being said with the faintest amount of venom in it, which didn't go unnoticed by the pair but they said nothing. Although to be fair, Natsuki now had a scowl and Harold was just awkwardly smiling._

 _Turning to the boy beside Natsuki, George then decided to explain the reason for his sudden visit. "Hello to you as well, Harold. I've come here for one specific reason, now that miss Natsuki had received her official supporting documents and the like via mail. Mrs. Meyer, I think you need to hear what I'm about to say as well, and your husband too if he's present."_

 _Jonathan Meyer wasn't available though, as he was currently restocking on supplies for the bakery. And so, George spoke with Natsuki, Harold and Carol instead._

 _"Natsuki is to be enrolled in Harold's high school as soon as possible. I presume all of you already know the importance of education, yes?"_

 _Carol then made an agreement with George regarding the enrollment process, and soon enough they were to contact Harold's principal._

 _"I'll be back you two, Mr. Waffle and I are just going to sort out some things so that you can finally go back to school, Natsuki!" the mother said with a bright smile, which the girl happily returned. Though she went back to her usual scowl once her eyes landed on George Waffle again._

 **(Flashback end)**

They finally made it to Harold's classroom, and everyone had already been seated except for the two of them.

Apparently, the pair was late by a total of 10 minutes for the first homeroom lecture of the day.

"So nice for you to finally arive and join the class, Mr. Meyer. Don't take a seat just yet." their homeroom teacher, a retired Lieutenant-rank officer from the army named Mr. Kaname, stared down the pair that had just arrived. His strict, no-nonsense tone sending a chill down Harold's spine.

He was a Japanese-American man, with a solidly built frame and an imposing stare with his eyes that had witnessed the horrors of war. Why he had taken up the profession of teaching? None of his students knew. Nonetheless, he was their homeroom teacher.

After getting a full look at Natsuki, Kaname nodded to himself. "I see you've brought the new student as well? The principal already filled me in."

Both Harold and Natsuki nodded, with the girl handing over the Mayor's proof-letter to the teacher.

The sounds of barely-hushed whispering started to fill the classroom, and was only silenced by Kaname putting his foot down.

"Stop this unnecessary noise or you're all going to get extra homework today, and a surprise quiz covering lessons I haven't discussed yet. I mean it." and with that threat, the entire class had been effectively shut up.

Turning to Natsuki, he beckoned the girl to speak.

"Go on, introduce yourself."

Suddenly being put on the spot, Natsuki timidly complied. Her next few words were about to cause a major storm in Harold's school life, as the girl finally revealed herself in earnest to his classmates.

"H-hello everyone. I'm Natsuki... from Doki Doki Literature Club."

 **-Chapter 5 END-**

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 **A/N: Short update, sigh. But I couldn't leave the readers of TCP with nothing for so long...**

 **See you all in the next update!**


	6. Chapter 6 - School Life

**Disclaimer: **I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body, and fire is my blood. I have created over a thousand blades. Unknown to death, nor known to life. Have withstood pain to create many weapons. Yet, those hands will never hold anything. So, as I pray - Unlimited Blade Works.

* * *

 **[Chapter 6 - School Life]**

The tense atmosphere was so thick, juicy and succulent, you could cut it with a steak kni-

Wait a minute, I think we've already used that line to start off the previous chapter. Huh, that's weird...

...

...

...

Moving on a bit... Natsuki had finally introduced herself to Harold's class, making her presence in Maple Leaf High fully established. And her reveal was met with mixed reactions from everybody present. The only one not displaying surprise being Mr. Kaname.

Some were in disbelief but had to accept the fact that the pink-haired girl had indeed somehow been brought over to reality from within DDLC. Others surrounded her with questions, and their homeroom teacher had to put them in their place before things got too rowdy.

And so, after Kaname's intervention, no one had approached Natsuki during the classes, and she was given space with only Harold really talking to her. But you could tell that several of them had been dying to interact with the girl.

Currently, half the school day had passed, and it was lunch break for Maple Leaf High. As such, the student body were all in their different cliques and groups, all either eating or doing other stuff during the break.

As for Harold and Natsuki, they sat on an unoccupied table in the school's public cafeteria.

They were animatedly discussing Natsuki's day in school so far, when one of their female classmates began approaching them.

It was his childhood friend, a headstrong and confident girl named Karen Wilson. Her vibrant and strong personality contrasted Harold's more subdued and passive one.

She playfully slaps the back of the Meyer and greets him quite eagerly. "Don't be such a stranger Harold! We've been friends for years now and you still act so stiff to me sometimes. And when were you planning to introduce Natsuki over here to me, hmm? Hiya there. Nice to meetcha, I'm this hopeless guy's guardian angel~"

Harold muttered an annoyed sigh at his friend's loud antics while gently stroking his back. Karen didn't mean to hurt him and he knew that, but the girl was really athletic and had trouble keeping her strength in check.

"Ugh, did you really have to hit me that hard, Karen? Jesus Christ, it hurts y'know! One day I might just have to do it to you in return..."

She laughs it off in a carefree manner, clearly being part of the usual dynamic between the two of them. "Sorry Harold, my hand slipped, hahahaha!"

"You always say that part about your hand merely 'slipping'. Your lack of self-control is amazing in its own right."

That remark earned a mock pout from the girl and Harold continued.

"Anyways, Natsuki, this girl right here is my childhood friend and one of our classmates. Karen Wilson. Don't let her intense personality overwhelm you."

Karen continued to smile cutely and even grinned at Natsuki. Said Doki was in a daze however, and her eyes seemed to be lost in thought as she absentmindedly was staring at the other girl. It rendered her a bit self-conscious.

This Karen Wilson seemed to be the "Monika" of Harold's school life, so to speak.

She had long and silky-smooth brown hair, that was let loose and flowed gracefully down to her back. Rich hazel eyes that twinkled with so much life. Lips that were full and plump with the lightest shade of coral pink lipstick. And a chest that uh...

...let's just say Yuri had a new rival in the *posture* department.

'So her name is Karen Wilson... who exactly is this beautiful girl, in Harold's life? And why do I feel a strange tightening in my chest all of a sudden? Ugh this is so goddamn confusing!'

Biting back her inner worry, Natsuki regains her confidence and shakes hands with Karen before doing her best impression of formality.

Ergo, what she'd think Yuri would act like in this situation. For once, she wanted to be known as the 'prim and proper' girl, and this was her chance to start anew. "Pleased to make your acquaintance today, Karen. I hope we get along better than I did with Yuri."

"Likewise, so this is the famous Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club huh? You look so cute when you try hard~"

Natsuki's calm demeanor evaporated and she was soon back to her rambunctious self. "I'M NOT CUTE! And what the hell do you mean by me 'looking cute when I try hard'?! SO HELP ME, I'MMA SMACK YOU AND THOSE COW TITS OF YOU-"

Harold, thinking quickly, covered his friend's mouth and tried to diffuse the tension a bit. "Ahaha, Natsuki can get quite intense about the cuteness thing, sorry about that."

"Right..." Karen replied with a sweatdrop. The Wilson didn't quite have any hidden malice or ill-intent behind saying that Natsuki was trying hard. She just found it adorable for the girl to act in a posh manner when her characterization in-game would suggest that she was a lot more chill. But experiencing Natsuki's fury in-person was another thing altogether. She was also blushing a bit due to Natsuki basically saying she had "cow tits".

Before they could talk any futher though, the three of them heard Karen's other friends calling her over from another table, and thus the Wilson had to leave for now. So she left the pair alone but not before saying goodbye to the pair. "I'll see you guys around, bye Harold! And it was nice meeting you Natsuki!"

Harold waved his childhood friend off with his free hand, with his other one still covering Natsuki's mouth in order to prevent her from letting out multiple expletives. The Meyer let out a sigh at his companion's temper. Her screams were still audibly muffled out by his hand. Lunch had long been forgotten about by the pair.

"MMmpbffbppgf!"

Finally, the Meyer let go and Natsuki immediately scrambled to breathe in some much needed air. She fixed herself before sending a nasty glare at the boy.

"The hell was that for? You want me to beat you up instead, Harold?!"

"Natsuki, you can't just go picking fights with people you've barely even met!" he said sternly with a firm voice. The girl wanted to answer back, but she knew that the Meyer was right and that she was being unreasonable right now. Karen only wanted to befriend her after all.

"Fine, you're right. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Let's just get back to eating, food's gonna go cold, y'know?" he says in a much calmer tone, now smiling.

Natsuki smiled back, and they resumed their eating.

 *******The Color Pink*******

"Man, I'm beat! I forgot that school was so freaking boring Harold! We have to listen to several teachers yap on and on for hours. Then again, I never was the studying type."

"Hey, school is important you know? Don't go slacking now. Mom always says that education is the way to a better future."

"Oh so what, are you a teacher now all of a sudden, Harold? I didn't take you for being one of those honor student types, ahahahahaha! You sure are surprisingly uptight. Heh." Natsuki howled out in laughter causing the boy to blush a bit.

They had just finished the last of the day's classes and were currently walking down the school hallways once more. Though there was still a significant amount of murmurs and whispers around them, they had learned to ignore it all. Natsuki in particular didn't really care. "Let them talk then, I'm famous now, bitches!" was her new confident mentality regarding the spread of gossip and background chatter at Maple Leaf High.

As they were walking while chatting casually with each other, they failed to pay attention to what was in front of them, causing Harold to inadvertently bump into another student. A schoolgirl.

Said girl being Claire Hannigan, accompanied by her posse. They were a group of school girls who were part of the popular kids, yet at the same time were known for being notorious bullies. The group consisted of Claire herself leading the trio, and her two gal pals - Lexi Bright and Tawna Jones.

Which brings us back to the reality of Harold Meyer bumping into said Claire Hannigan just now, and in effect the collision accidentally causing her to topple over and drop her can of soda on the ground.

This very same Claire Hannigan was one that had many run-ins with Harold in the past. Harold first met the girl in their first year of high school, and even way back then, they were already at odds with each other. She endlessly teased him with her friends, and although none of them were particularly violent in nature, Claire was still a malevolent force that threatened to make Harold's day-to-day life at school, a miserable one.

This was now Harold's second year of high school currently, and nothing seems to have changed between him and Claire.

"Hey! Who is this loser that made me almost tr- Ooooooh it's you! I figured it'd be you, Harold. What's the matter, did your little bakery finally go broke? Look where you're walking, cake boy."

With an annoyed sigh, Harold begrudingly muttered a hasty "Sorry" before attempting to flee the scene while dragging Natsuki away.

However, Claire had other plans.

"What was that, cake boy? Care to repeat that a little louder for me and my squad?"

This stopped Harold dead in his tracks. He knew that this time, it was him that had accidentally bumped into this annoying girl. But it was just that, an accident! Unfortunately, this had given his tormentor some leverage over him and it pissed him off to no end. He didn't dare to publicly oppose her however, due to Claire and her group's social status within the school ecosystem.

See, if Claire wanted to, she could easily spread around fake and baseless rumors of him, and there'd be nothing the Meyer could do about it. She was one of the popular kids, while he was just minding his own business.

And so he sucked it up, balled his fists to the side, and marched up over to Claire before bowing his head in false respect.

"I'm sorry for bumping you and spilling your drink, Claire. I wasn't paying attention."

Flashing a satisfied yet overly smug grin, the bully egged Harold even further.

"See, was that so hard to do? You should know your place by now. Come girls, let's leave this loser to think about his actions, ahahahahaha~!"

Harold was struggling desperately to control himself, but he reigned all his anger in without letting an outburst escape his system.

The Meyer however made one very grave miscalculation. An error that he would be realizing in a few seconds.

"Where the flying fuck are you going, you've insulted my friend like that and you're just gonna walk away laughing, you bitches?! Get your asses back here and face me like the confident snooty fools that you are!"

The boy had forgotten entirely that accompanying him at this very moment, was a certain pink bundle of violent dynamite that was just waiting all this time to be ignited. Natsuki had just yelled and cussed at one of the most popular cliques in their school, and it replaced all of his anger entirely with immense fear at what would become of the two of them. Reputation-wise.

Claire, Lexi and Tawna immediately returned post-haste, and a crowd had slowly began to form among the five of them. Harold wasn't really liking all of this attention but Natsuki didn't give a damn.

"You've got something to say, shorty?" Claire sneered. Lexi and Tawna however, even though they were initially about to join their leader in the teasing, promptly recognized who the girl with Harold truly was.

"Uh, Claire... I think you need to take a better look at who that girl is..." Lexi stated with Tawna nodding in agreement.

"Huh, and why should I care who... oh."

Yes, that's right. Even Harold's tormentors had played Doki Doki Literature Club. The game was immensely popular with Harold's generation after all.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongues? Why the fuck are you three staring at me like that? And WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SHORTY, YOU'RE ONLY A FEW INCHES TALLER THAN ME!"

Claire walked forward, and eyed Natsuki's figure up and down. She then stepped back and glared at Harold.

"How the hell did a cake boy like you become friends with a cute girl like her? This is Natsuki from that game, right? The Principal did mention something about her escape into reality but I didn't think it was true."

Harold averted his eyes, and Natsuki wasn't having any of this.

"Stop changing the fucking topic! Now are you going to apologize to my friend, or do I have to beat you and your gang up?!"

Like a fire being lit in Claire's chest, her nostrils flared up in anger. If her friends wouldn't join her in this fight, so be it. She sneaked a glance behind her and sure enough, both Lexi and Tawna were now watching on the sidelines along with Harold and the rest of the crowd.

Nevertheless, her confidence didn't waver for even the slightest bit. "Is that a challenge? Even if you are a famous girl from DDLC, I'm not backing down from a shorty like you!"

"Bring it on, you bitch! I've been good the entire day, and I won't let you sour it with your unneeded crap!"

Something told the Meyer that even though classes for today were finished, their day was about to drag on even longer. Especially with the amount of anger radiating from both his campanion, and the leader of the bully trio.

The crowd around them wasn't exactly helping either.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

 ****To be continued in [Chapter 7 - Claire vs Natsuki]****

 **-Chapter 6 END-**

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A/N: A bit longer than the last update, but still short. I need to make the next one even longer, damn. See you all in the next update!


	7. Chapter 7 - Claire vs Natsuki

**Disclaimer: Here's a simple math problem for all of you. If Jack has 3 apples, and Jane has 5 apples, why don't they just shut up and eat?**

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 **[Chapter 7 - Claire vs Natsuki]**

The tense atmosphere was so thick, juicy and succulent, you could cut it with a steak knife. And quite literally too if we're being honest. In the sense that both Claire and Natsuki currently wanted to cut each other right now with steak knives. They both had similar trains of thought involving cutting and slashing that would make the Act 2 version of Yuri very proud.

Right now though, they were resorting to various forms of verbal dissing instead.

"You act all confident for a shorty! So what if I insulted your friend for being the cake boy that he is? He's the one who bumped into me today!"

"If you insult Harold one more time, I'm ripping your teeth from your mouth!"

"Bring it on, Natsuki McShorty!"

"CALL ME SHORT ONE MORE TIME AND YOU'RE GONNA GET WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR!"

"STOP YELLING AT ME, YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!"

"MAKE ME, YOU CLASS A BITCH!"

Meanwhile, the crowd kept chanting the word "Fight!" while being loud in general.

Harold could only watch on the sidelines, while keeping an eye on Lexi and Tawna in case they'd try something behind Natsuki's back. Neither of Claire's friends were doing anything at the moment other than watching the ensuing quarrel, but the Meyer was still cautious.

Natsuki was this close to blowing her fuse and tackling the bully, but she was still trying to control her anger by abstaining from physical attacks. She inwardly thought that if it did become a fistfight, the first strike should come from the other girl. That way, she'd be in less trouble and so would Harold.

Fortunately, the fight was put to a halt when a certain teacher had stumbled upon the commotion.

"What is the meaning of this?! Cease this right now, and I won't have to inform the principal. Salvato, Meyer, Hannigan, Bright, Jones. The five of you are coming with me."

Mr. Kaname had arrived on the scene. His commanding presence immediately silenced the entire crowd, save from an audible collective groan from the bully trio. Claire in particular was annoyed.

"Natsuki started it! I was just teaching Harold a less-"

"I don't want to hear it, Claire."

"But Sir Kaname-"

"Do you want me to inform Ms. Miller about what you and your friends were doing just now? I guess you'd love the extra homework..."

"NO, ANYTHING BUT THAT! CLAIRE IS GOING TO BEHAVE, RIGHT CLAIRE?!" Lexi immediately squeals as she restrained Claire and prevented her from speaking any further with Tawna's help.

And so, the five students had earned a free express ride to detention with Kaname. Harold and Natsuki could only sigh in disappointment over the fact that the Doki's first day in school would end like this. With the two of them stewing in a punishment session alongside the Meyer's worst bullies.

"And it had to be with Claire too. Damn it Natsuki, you should've let them be!" Harold whispered with annoyance to Natsuki who also replied in an agitated yet hushed manner. The five of them were currently walking towards the room used for detention sessions. The Meyer and the Doki were speaking softly enough that the others wouldn't be able to hear them.

"But they were mocking you like that! Sorry for trying to be a good friend!"

Harold couldn't really be mad at that, and he was touched too by the sentiment. "And I appreciate that, thank you Natsuki."

The pink-haired girl's growing blush served as her reply, and nothing more was said between them for now. All that remained was the inevitable 3 hour wait before they could go home after serving detention time.

"This sucks." Natsuki muttered to no one in particular.

 *******The Color Pink*******

Three hours of utter boredom and trepidation later, they were finally free. Claire's group immediately sprinted off away from them, the three girls being much obviously glad that such torture was over now and they could leave school. But that didn't really matter to Harold.

He and Natsuki were finally given some time to relax again, and they were chatting about anime on the way home. The Meyer house was only a few minutes away from the school.

Harold called his parents ahead of time to inform them with a summary of what had happened, along with informing them that they'd be coming home late and that he wouldn't be able to help with the bakery for today.

Carol was the one to reply, reminding them not to be out too late, and to always stay safe.

As a result of getting permission, the Meyer decided to take a little detour with Natsuki.

"We aren't going home yet or to your family's bakery, Harold?"

"Let's unwind a bit first, we won't be too long. I know that today has been a bit rough, and while I don't normally do this, it'd be a nice change of pace and we get to blow off some steam while forgetting about that fiasco with Claire."

"Hmmm... and where are we going?"

"Over there of course!" Harold announced while pointing at the brightly lit sign that was straight ahead in front of them, for only a few more meters away.

It was the local arcade.

Seeing such a joint made Natsuki giddy with delight, for aside from being an anime and manga junkie, she was also quite the gamer. "What are we waiting for then, let's go!"

The pair proceeded to play all sorts of arcade games such as a whack-a-mole variant, one that involved shooting through cones, and multiple attempts at crane games.

"I swear this fucking game is cheating!"

"Natsuki, we might run out of coins, let's try some of the other games first..."

"I HAVE TO FREAKING BEAT THIS PIECE OF TRASH FIRST! I WON'T BE MADE A FOOL LIKE THIS!"

Harold chuckled. He knew that the girl was intense, but he liked this side of her as well. That fierce and confident attitude of hers. Even though back then, he thought Natsuki was high maintenance, only now that he had spent quite some time with her already that he saw how amazing she really was.

Natsuki was an amazing girl. She was strong-willed, always honest with her words, and an earnest girl at heart.

And she stood up for him. No one had done that for Harold before, and Claire had been able to walk all over him for the past year and the past few months of the current school year.

In such a short amount of time, Natsuki was already changing his life for the better. And he could now honestly say with all of his heart, that he was glad Natsuki was the one to escape from his copy of DDLC among the four characters.

The sound of fingers being snapped broke him out of his reverie.

"Wh... what?"

"Finally, good grief! You've been spacing out on me for like, five minutes now. You missed the time I almost beat this stupid crane game too!"

Scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment, Harold apologized for being absent-minded. "Sorry about that, I was just thinking about some stuff."

And soon enough, they were already back to trying out all the games they could play together.

Harold and Natsuki were having some nice bonding time, and it seemed that all their earlier troubles had begun to fade away into nothing. At least their day would end quite nicely.

"It's you two! The cake boy and his new friend, huh? What are you losers doing here?!"

Or not.

Claire, all by herself, apparently had been at the arcade as well. She was in the middle of playing a racing game before she spotted Natsuki playing some air hockey with Harold nearby.

Upon hearing the Hannigan's voice, both Harold and Natsuki tensed. They pretended to not notice the girl while talking to each other discreetly.

"What the fudge, she's here too Harold?!"

"I honestly didn't know!"

"Let's just pretend we can't hear her then, I don't wanna deal with more crap from her right now. I'm too tired for that."

"No objections here, Natsuki."

And so, they continued to play air hockey while Claire kept on calling out at them.

"Are you two ignoring me?!" No response, and slowly but surely the girl's temper had begun to rise up higher and higher.

Eventually, having enough of being given the silent treatment, she marches over to where the air hockey booth was, and glared at the two with her hands placed on her hips.

"Listen to me while I'm talking to you!" she yelled. Luckily, there were very few people at the arcade, due to it already being 8:11 in the evening. The place closed at 10 o'clock after all.

With Claire shoving herself into their midst, they had no choice but to acknowledge the girl. Harold remained quiet, well aware that anything he could say would only end up agitating his tormentor even further. Thus, he let Natsuki do all the talking.

Not really in a fighting mood either, Natsuki lazily responded. "Ugh, leave us alone already. We're minding our own damn business and you just had to show your ugly mug again."

But Claire wouldn't have any of that.

"U-ugly?!"

But Natsuki scoffed and tried to ignore Claire once more. Obviously, said tactic failed due to yet another outburst.

"Nobody causes Claire Hannigan to be forced to endure detention, and gets away with it! I'm making you pay right now, Natsuki! For the humiliation I had to endure!"

"Just drop it already... ugh. It's not like you're the only one who received detention from Mr. Kaname."

Alas, Claire had other plans.

"I challenge you in this game! If I win, you have to kneel on the ground and apologize!" the Hannigan declared with much gusto.

With a sigh, and due to being one that didn't back down from a challenge, Natsuki reluctantly accepted the bet.

"This is such a drag but fine I'll agree to do your stupid challenge. If I win though, I get to make you do one thing or favor, and you can't complain at all even if it's something really dumb."

"Deal!"

The Meyer tried to voice his input.

"So... I don't get any say in this little argume-"

He wasn't very successful at it though, and got silenced pretty quickly.

"Zip it cake boy!"/"Not now, Harold!" the girls simultaneously prevented Harold from speaking his mind, and the Meyer sulked in the corner as he watched them go at it.

"Why aren't those other girls with you by the way, what's their names again? Lea and Tricia?"

Facepalming, Claire corrected her. "Their names are Lexi and Tawna! Get it right. And no, both of them have already went home. Why, you got a problem with me being here by myself?!"

"I've got a problem with this whole challenge thing and you being so noisy and loud right now..."

"Stop changing the topic, you shortstack!"

Natsuki grit her teeth, this girl really was a piece of work in her opinion. "Let's just do the damn contest already. We're going to do a First to 5. Harold, keep score for us!"

"I'd rather not get involved with this, to be honest."

"Cake boy, if you don't do it, I'm going to make your life a living hell."

With a fear-filled look, he took a glance at Natsuki, only for the her to snap at him as well.

"Just do it Harold! So we can get this over with quicker and we can go the fuck home already. Ugh, it's getting late and Carol's gonna scold us!"

 *******The Color Pink*******

Their hands were tensed, as both girls stared each other down like two vultures ready to outfly each other in pursuit of a freshly strewn about carcass in the middle of the desert.

Natsuki held her air hockey striker tightly, in anticipation of her opponent's leading move in their match.

They had decided via coinflip that Claire would go first, and so Natsuki would be the one left with the task of countering the initial serve. A bead of sweat rolled down the pink-haired girl's right cheek, and her eyebrows were furrowed towards the middle of her forehead in super concentration.

Harold would be serving as the one keeping track of the score being displayed by the air hockey machine, as well as an honorary arbiter that would point out if foul play was being committed by either player. He had to be unbiased in this.

"Let's do this, Natsuki!"

And with one confident motion, Claire performed a clean diagonal swipe at the puck, finally starting the match in earnest.

It was a nice serve, and the puck went at a fast speed, bouncing off the left edge of the table and was now in a right diagonal trajectory towards the goal.

With quick reflexes, thanks to Natsuki being an inherent gamer inside of DDLC's lore, she blocked the puck and decided to go with a straight return, and the puck rebounded in a straight line which was slightly off by 5 degrees.

"You aren't going to score that easily on me!"

Hand and eye coordination was required in games such as air hockey. And Natsuki, though not the most physically fit among the Dokis, had a well-honed pair of eyes and hands. Gaming and being an anime/manga lover usually came hand-in-hand after all.

Not expecting such a straightforward counter, Claire failed to perform her own counterattack, and the first point on the board was scored by Natsuki.

"Natsuki 1 - Claire 0" Harold declared with a smile. Of course, he wanted his friend to win this thing.

With a grumble, the Hannigan set the puck again on the table and glared at Natsuki. She was actually beaten in getting the first point.

"I won't lose so easily, shorty!" she weakly called out, however even picking on the girl's height did nothing to erase the smug grin from Natsuki's face. She was clearly proud of herself and Claire was slowly getting demoralized.

Natsuki added some more fuel to the fire with an en garde gesture. "Bring it on, Claire."

With a loud and audible exhale, Claire commenced with the initial serve once more, but this time she would take things nice and slowly.

A simple straight swing was her tactic this time.

"Seriously, are you even playing anymore?" Natsuki teased as she casually returned the serve, however Claire was able to return as well, starting a relay.

What Natsuki failed to notice however was that Claire was slowly increasing the power of her strike in each return.

Finally, at the apex of the relay, the Hannigan made her true move.

"ORA!" breaking from the relays of straights and returns, Claire performed a curve shot that threw Natsuki off-balance.

"Shit, that puck's going too fast!" and although she said that, Natsuki still managed to stop it from entering the goal, albeit barely. Her return this time was sloppy and slow.

With a confident smirk, Claire secured her first point on the board with a final return.

"Hah!"

The puck slipped through, with a thunderous clanging sound.

"Natsuki 1 - Claire 1!"

They finally had a real game on their hands, and Natsuki was quickly realizing that her opponent wasn't to be taken likely.

Their battle wasn't an easy one, and became so intense to the point that the Arcade's shopkeeper himself began watching alongside Harold. Everyone else had left the place already due to it being almost closing time.

"They're going at it quite intensely, aren't they Harold?"

"I know, it's frightening to be honest."

Another reason why Harold had chosen this particular arcade, was because Jonathan Meyer, his father, was friends with the shopkeeper - known to the many teenagers that frequented the place as "Spade". Even his name tag had the nickname on it in place of his true first name.

His real name wasn't known to Harold, although his father probably knew what it really was. The boy didn't pry anyway.

Spade, watched with high interest at what he deemed was the first time in years, that someone took a game of air hockey this seriously.

Claire had just scored yet another point with a deft swipe on the puck, tying up the current score to 4-4.

"Natsuki 4 - Claire 4, match point for both players!" Harold announced with much trepidation, and Spade said nothing.

Now, it was Natsuki's turn to serve again. This was the decisive moment for their match, one that would bring an end to their current bout.

Closing her eyes, the Doki tried channeling certain thoughts in her mind in order to help her focus.

This was more than just a game. If she lost, Claire would walk all over her like trash. It would be just like her school experience inside of Doki Doki Literature Club all over again. Shunned, bullied, and left alone with almost no friends other than the literature club itself.

Natsuki didn't want to go through that anymore. Here in Harold's reality, she was given another chance to start over.

But more impotantly, if she lost, Claire would pretty much continue to make Harold's school life a miserable one.

This meant that she absolutely **had** to win, at all costs. This wasn't just for her sake, she was doing this for the boy that had become quite close to her heart in recent memory.

Natsuki was doing it for Harold. Her Harold.

"Your girlfriend's getting all fired up, Harold. Isn't that sweet?" Spade commented upon noticing the intense look of concentration that Natsuki was showing off.

Harold blushed a bit before denying the older man's claim. "W-we aren't like that! She's just a friend!"

"If you say so. Let's just get back to the match, I'm rooting for your girlfriend by the way. She's a cutie. Though the other girl doesn't look half bad too." said response by Spade causing Harold to sigh and his blush to deepen.

The two males went back to focusing on the ongoing battle and saw something truly special.

Natsuki held the puck striker in a position that placed the apparatus behind her a bit, using her right hand. Meanwhile, her left hand was placed forward, seemingly being used like a target lock-on. Her eyes were still fully closed, signifying total zen and concentration being manifested in full form.

Claire was obviously laughing at the utter ridiculous looking stance of her opponent. "Ahahahaha, what the hell is that?! You've lost your mind, Natsuki!" she laughed out loud while pointing at the other girl, who remained silent.

Harold didn't really get it as well, but Spade's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and even gasped a bit, which the Meyer clearly heard.

"Spade, what's the matter?"

"Your girlfriend... it's over. She's going to beat that other girl with the greatest of ease."

Tilting his head in lack of awareness on what exactly Spade meant, Harold could only dumbly reply. "Huh?"

"Just watch, boy. We're about to witness history being made."

In truth, although obviously not on purpose since Natsuki wasn't really a pro air hockey player, but the girl was unknowingly performing the strongest serving stance in air hockey history.

The "Sword".

Her stance right now was actually resembling that of a one-handed swordsman in a berserker stance. Not too far from how someone like, say, Kirito from Sword Art Online looked like whenever he was about to perform a one-handed sword skill.

In fact, Natsuki was probably copying that stance of Kirito's to begin with. Not that she had to let the others know, that even right now, she was relying on the anime she watched to get through this endeavor.

'Screw it, I'm gonna whack this puck like a sword being used to slice!' Natsuki thought while inwardly cringing at the risk she was about to take.

With a deep breath, Natsuki unleashed her strike. Going full on weaboo, she swung the striker like she was holding a sword, and yelled out one ferocious kiai of voice. She didn't even care if there were people around or not, she would win this thing for Harold!

The moment Natsuki's striker and the puck made contact with each other, time seemed to slow for everyone, and sparks flew outward due to the high amount of force being exerted.

"SWORD SKILL, VORPAL STRIKE!"

Her loud scream echoed throughout the arcade, rendering Harold and Spade speechless.

Claire was intensely dumbfounded at her opponent's brash action, and remained frozen. "S-sword... what the hell was that?!"

She was dumbfounded but it was pointless. Natsuki's shot made it through and proudly scored the final goal point. Streaks of wind gushed through the air, and the veins on Natsuki's neck were strained a bit. She was panting lightly, and it had taken all of her strength to pull of such a move.

"I... I did it! I won Harold! I won!" she jumped up and down before tackling Harold with a tight hug.

Claire dropped to her knees, and was crying. Spade went up to the defeated girl, and placed a hand on her shoulder, prompting the girl to look up.

"Are... you the shopkeeper?"

"Indeed, as well as the owner of this place. Don't be sad, you should be proud. Your match with the boy's girl was down to the wire. There's always next time."

"But... I lost... and the bet..."

"There was a bet involved, huh. Well, best of luck to you. But still, raise your head up high. That was one hell of a match, kiddo." Spade left the girl but not before giving her a handkerchief to wipe her tears with, which Claire accepted graciously.

She then went up to Natsuki and Harold with her head hung low, while the pair was still on cloud nine over their victory.

"So... what do you want me to do, Natsuki?"

This brought Natsuki out of her state of euphoria. "Oh right, you owe us one favor now, right? I'm surprised you didn't try to weasel out of your punishment like most bullies would!"

In a low voice, Claire replied. Her hands were shaking, but she was unable to do anything. "I'm a girl of my word. Now, tell me what you want, Natsuki."

After mulling it over, the victor had come to a decision and smirked at her fallen foe. "I'm leaving it to Harold to come up with your punishment, heh."

This ellicited sounds of surprise from both the Meyer and the Hannigan.

"Are you sure Natsuki? It's your win after all, and Claire might not acce-"

"I'll do the request, just spit it out already cake boy." Clare immediately interrupted. She was on the verge of tears but trying to hide it.

"O... okay. I just want one thing."

Natsuki and Claire listened in with keen interest. Spade, though now preparing to close the arcade, was also listening in.

"I want... to become proper friends with Claire. Is that alright?"

...

...

...

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK, HAROLD?!" Natsuki exclaimed in utter flabbergasted surprise, and Claire bowed her head in shame over the boy's touching request. After everything she had done to him, to think that this was his idea of a "punishment".

 **-Chapter 7 END-**

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 **A/N: So yeah, I know some of you were expecting a good old catfight, but what you got was an overdramatic air hockey match instead, ahaha.**

 **Also, to get a better visual on how Natsuki's stance looked like in her final shot, Google "Kirito stance". Also, "Sword Skill - Vorpal Strike" is a real thing in SAO lol.**

 **Next chapter's going to focus on life outside of school, especially the proper appearance of the Meyer's bakery so look forward to it!**


	8. Chapter 8 - Let's Be Friends!

**Disclaimer:** Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is what connects one process (the cause) with another process or state (the effect), where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly dependent on the first. In general, a process has many causes, which are said to be causal factors for it, and all lie in its past. An effect can in turn be a cause of, or causal factor for, many other effects, which all lie in its future. Causality is metaphysically prior to notions of time and space.

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 **[Chapter 8 - Let's Be Friends!]**

Harold was on the receiving end of the bloodiest and fiercest glare he'd gotten so far in his entire life.

Why, you might ask?

Well, this was because Harold Meyer had suddenly wanted to befriend Claire Hannigan, his worst bully. Obviously, such a ridiculous notion couldn't be accepted, nor properly comprehended at all by one currently fuming Natsuki Salvato. She was very vocal in proclaiming her lack of approval too.

"You want to be friends with her?! HER?! That... that... she-demon from hell?!"

"Calling her a 'she-demon' is going overboard..."

"Are you finally losing it from too much studying or working at your bakery, Harold?!"

"Natsuki, you said that the request was up to me, right? That's my request."

"But, if I knew that this was what you were thinking-"

"What's the harm in it?"

Natsuki stomped around the arcade in righteous anger. "She made your school life a living hell, and she's the one who tried to shame you in public not too long ago! Heck, it hasn't been half a day yet since that happened! And she keeps mocking my height!"

"I think we should give her a chance though."

"If you're really gonna do this, then I'm taking the right to punish the bitch back! I'll be the one to decide what she should do!"

"You can't take it back Natsuki, no fair!"

"Then think of something else other than trying to be the she-demon's friend!"

While Natsuki and Harold were busy arguing, Claire had become silent the entire time. They were probably too engrossed in their heated argument that they didn't notice that she was still there, hearing everything.

That, or maybe they just didn't care at all.

Still, it made her glow in embarassment. She couldn't deny it though. Day in and day out, whenever it was a school day, she'd somehow find a way to mess with the poor boy in multitudes of ways.

Be it by calling him names, or setting up pranks like filling his locker with rotting cheese, you name it. Lexi and Tawna were accomplices of course, but most of the bullying had been perpetrated by Claire herself. This had been their dynamic from shortly after their initial meeting, until the present.  
She hadn't exactly been the nicest person to Harold. A fact that was both known by the boy and herself.

 **(Flashback Start)**

 _Over a year ago, during Harold's first year at Maple Leaf High._

 _His first week at school had been going pretty swell. He made a couple of friends, and his teachers were all pretty nice and fair. Even the general stuff such as the cafeteria workers and the school nurse were all pretty accomodating._

 _Harold's classmates were the same too. No one really stood out as mean or a bully amongst them, and he even had his best friend Karen in the same class as him. All was going pretty good so far._

 _What the boy failed to notice however, was a girl who kept on tailing him wherever he went._

 _"Hey Harold, don't you feel like someone's been following us?"_

 _"What do you mean Karen?" the boy asks, not sure if his childhood friend had been seeing or hearing things._

 _"Nevermind I guess..."_

 _But Karen Wilson's intuition was indeed correct, as there truly was someone who had been stalking Harold in secret for the entire week now._

 _A shy and timid girl who was new in town and didn't really have anyone to call their friend yet._

 _Her name, was Claire Hannigan._

 _She had been wanting to approach the Meyer for days now, ever since she saw how radiant his personality was. And how easily he was able to make friends, Claire had been envious at how easy he made it look._

 _But today, that would change. She would become his friend too. If everybody else could do it, then so would she!_

 _Claire would finally muster up the courage to talk to Harold. This would've been easier in her opinion if they were part of the same class, but unfortunately that wasn't the case._

 _So she would make do with this type of introduction._

 _As if heaven smiled on her with good fortune, Karen finally separated from Harold. The girl appearing to have other errands to attend to._

 _"This is my chance, make a good impression to him, Claire!" she lightly slaps her cheeks while hyping herself up._

 _Overcoming her shyness, Claire went up to where Harold currently was. The boy was seated on one of the vacant tables in the school cafeteria. It was lunch break, after all._

 _She sat in front of Harold, her lip quivering a bit in anxiety._

 _So far, he said nothing, which was good._

 _"H-hello, my name is C-Claire! I'm in the same year as you, but f-from a different class. Nice to m-meet you."_

 _No response from Harold who continued to bite on his sandwich without a care in the world._

 _"I... I'd like to be f-friends, if that's okay?" she tried offering with a very bright smile, and an extended hand revving up for a friendly handshake._

 _Claire's efforts would soon prove to be an embarassing failure, when Harold finally notices her... after removing the earphones he had been wearing the entire time._

 _"...oh, was someone here? Sorry, I didn't notice you! Hiya there, I'm Harold! Nice to meet you!"_

 _Needless to say, Claire took it the wrong way, and mistakenly thought that Harold had been ignoring her, due to her not being popular enough or standing out._

 _"I'll show you! Mark my words, you'll pay for this!"_

 _Scratching the back of his head, unaware of the rift he had unknowningly caused between himself and the girl, Harold could only stare at her retreating figure in wonder._

 _"What... was that all about? I never even got her name..."_

 _Claire then decided that an image change was needed, and that she had to climb up the social ladder in order to get back at the boy that had scorned her._

 _Initially, she had long black hair, and wore the standard school uniform. When her transformation had completed however, Claire resembled those fashion-y girls you'd see in drama tv shows. Or anime-wise, the 'gyaru' archetype, minus the tan and change of hair color._

 _She now styled her hair into a fashionable ponytail, and let her bangs form one side fringe. Her school blazer was slightly opened, showing off the slightest hint of cleavage. She also wore black knee-highs, and adorned herself with fashionable jewelry._

 _The result - Claire Version 2._

 _Next, she worked on her stuttering and shyness immensely. Claire would often volunteer for activities that needed her to be in front of an audience, slowly building up her confidence over time._

 _In her mind though, it was all worth it. All to get back at the boy who had scorned her with indifference, only because she wanted to be his friend._

 _Granted, Harold didn't mean to, and it was an honest mistake caused by wrong timing and a pair of headphones, but Claire didn't know anything about that, as fate would have it._

 _Soon enough, Claire became the most popular girl in school through sheer hardwork, and had two devoted friends in the form of Lexi Bright and Tawna Jones. They were two of the various girls she had surpassed in popularity, and the Hannigan had managed to sway them to her side._

 _Months passed, and after the various pranks Claire and her gal pals had done on Harold, she had more than paid him back tenfold over his "offense" towards her. Her bullying had been enough already._

 _But Claire couldn't stop. She wasn't able to._

 _She knew that she was wrong, and along the way, she even found out that Harold wasn't really at fault. Karen had slipped it past her that during their fateful meeting, the boy couldn't respond because he had been listening to music at the time while eating._

 _But because she was so immersed in being the school diva, the Hannigan had no choice in her mind, but to continue living out the role of being Harold's bully for the rest of their school lives._

 _Even though all of this started because she wanted to be his friend._

 _She wanted to laugh at the insanity of it all. Claire greatly envied Karen, the childhood friend of Harold. That girl was smart, beautiful, and didn't need to bully Harold to even be a part of his life._

 _Maybe that was another reason that Claire didn't stop with the bullying. If she did, there would be nothing to connect her with the boy anymore. They weren't in the same class, they weren't neighbors, and they sure weren't friends._

 _She... didn't want to think about that._

 _What she'd do, if she couldn't see Harold anymore._

 _The irony of it all was, Harold never found out that the girl who was relentlessly bullying him, and the girl he met that fateful day in the cafeteria was the very same person._

 _Claire Hannigan was definitely keeping that information to the grave. Harold could never find out about her embarassment. She would never ever let that secret out. The only ones who knew the entire story were Lexi and Tawna, her closest friends._

 _And thus, the bullying continued to this day, with Claire trying to maintain the status quo as hard as she can._

 **(Flashback end)**

That was, until Natsuki came into their lives and changed everything.

Once again, another one managed to become friends with him before she did. And it was even someone who was supposed to be a video game character!

But... she didn't need to do this anymore. Harold was asking to be her friend this time. Was this the work of fate itself, did it finally intervene and brought her a way to make amends with the boy?

Could she even be friends with him though, at this point?

Claire knew that he had hurt him too much... and it was wishful thinking. Natsuki was right, she was nothing but a she-demon. A she-demon who tormented people for her own petty reasons.

What good was having the title of most popular, if the one you truly wanted to be friends with has been out of your reach the entire time? And even worse, was one that you've personally tormented for a lengthy amount of time?

"Hey, why the hell are you crying? What happened to that bitchy attitude of yours? Who knew that 'The Claire Hannigan' had a weak heart?"

"A-are you alright... Claire?"

...

...

...

"...Huh?"

Apparently she didn't notice it, but thinking about her entire past with Harold so far cause Claire to subconsciously shed tears. She had been crying.

Harold looked at her with concern, and Natsuki scoffed while still peeking from the corner of her eye.

Even now, Harold was too kind for his own good. And such kindness was being wasted on a girl like her, Claire thought.

"I can't be your friend, cake boy."

Natsuki then sneered in delight. "Good, it was a stupid request anyway by Harold. Now we can do your proper punishment..."

Harold surprised both of them by standing in front of Claire, directly.

"W-what is it, you dumb cake boy?"

The Meyer continued to stare intensely into the eyes of his sworn nemesis, and Natsuki had a confused look the entire time.

He grabbed Claire's hand and held it tight. It made the girl's cheeks flush with redness.

"Are you confessing to me or something? I'm the one who bullied you for almost two years now."

"Be my friend."

Steam appeared to come out of her ears, and Claire was blushing madly. She couldn't believe this was happening. Even after all that had come between them, Harold was bridging the gap she had caused to grow with such ease.

"I... can't..."

"Why not?"

"Because... I bullied you..."

"So?"

Hearing Harold's response surprised Claire greatly. She expected her to throw several complaints at her face as retaliation, but nothing of the sort came.

"What do you mean, so? You're willing to be friends with the girl that kept on trying to humiliate you? You're willing to be friends with someone rotten like me?"

"Yes. And I should've done so a long time ago. I'm sorry for not hearing you the first time, that day."

Her eyes widened. Claire was beyond shocked at that moment over what she had just heard.

He knew. Somehow, Harold had found out.

Natsuki didn't really get it, but she didn't interfere. Seeing Claire and Harold like this reminded her of how she was with Yuri back in the game. Though neither of them were the bully to the other, they still argued and fought a lot.

"You... knew?"

"For a while now, yeah. You tried to be my friend that day, but I didn't hear you at all due to my headphones."

Shaking a bit, Claire screamed. This couldn't be real. She refused to believe it.

Harold Meyer had found out her deepest, darkest secret.

Thinking fast, she dragged Natsuki and Harold out by the hand, while saying a rushed goodbye towards Spade who merely waved them off before closing up shop.

Natsuki complained about being randomly shoved out from the arcade. "The hell was that for, you bitch?! Wanna go?!"

"Not now shortstack, I'll deal with you later!"

"Tch."

Stomping back to Harold, Claire screeched.

"Who told you? WHO WAS IT?! Tell me! Was it Lexi? Tawna? Did that friend of yours, Karen, find out? WHO?!"

Harold let out a tired sigh, and had a somber look.

"I found out myself about two months after it happened. I had been looking everywhere for you, well, the previous you, without any luck. I wanted to apologize, but I wasn't sure that you and the girl were one and the same, Claire."

Scowling in anger, she banged her fists at Harold, the boy merely standing there and accepting all of her venting and frustration. He insisted that Natsuki remain doing nothing.

"Why! If you knew, then why didn't you say anything?! Why did I have to become your bully?! I never wanted to do those things! I don't like calling you a loser! You're the farthest thing from a loser! You're kind! You're handsome! You're even running a bakery with your parents, and that's very respectable! Yet I kept on having to mock you in public!" she said while crying hysterically, letting over a year's worth of bottled-up feelings out in the air.

"You think I enjoyed being mean?! Of course not! I wanted to become your friend! But you didn't say anything! I had to keep up this charade of being your worst nightmare! Why Harold, why?!"

She grabbed him by the collar and shook him violently in her anger.

"Why?! We could've been friends a long time ago... so why?"

Harold still said nothing, letting Claire speak out her mind the entire time. Even Natsuki started to tear up, finally understanding some of the things that went through Claire's mind. She would ask Harold about the full story later on, and maybe even from Claire herself once this was all sorted out. But for now, she would just observe their little moment.

"Why Harold... why..."

"I'm sorry, Claire. Sorry that it took so long for this."

Not able to fight it anymore, Claire hugged Harold really tight, and the boy happily returned it. They let the embrace linger a while, before breaking it off. Claire dried away her tears and she now shined brightly with a smile. Harold and Natsuki were both mesmerized at how cute she looked, now having seen this side of the girl.

"Let's start over, Harold."

Harold nodded in agreement, quite happy that he had finally buried the hatchet with his former bully, now friend.

"Yeah, that would be nice."

Claire then bowed her head, and repeated the words that she failed to get across to Harold during that day where their destinies linked for the first time.

"Hello, my name is Claire! I'm in the same year as you, but from a different class. Nice to meet you."

Harold bowed as well. "Hiya there, I'm Harold! Nice to meet you too. Let's be friends, shall we?"

Tearing up once more, but this time due to overwhelming joy, Claire nodded furiously while tackling Harold in a hug.

"Yeah, I'll be in your care and Natsuki's!"

Hearing her name, the Doki perked up. "Uh... what? You wanna be my friend?"

Claire turned her head while still hugging Harold who was now blushing at the sudden contact. "Yeah, let's be friends!"

Natsuki then walked up and gave a grin.

"Yeah... how about no."

Claire let go of Harold who struggled to regain his composure. The girl then smothered Natsuki with a hug this time.

"Lemme go! You're a she-demon, a she-demooooooon!"

 *******The Color Pink*******

Jonathan Meyer, Carol Meyer, Francis Hannigan, Martha Hannigan and Spade all stood in front of the three teenegars inside the living room of the Meyer household.

The former four had their arms crossed, while Spade nonchantly watched them with a shrug.

Jonathan then spoke up.

"What do you have to say for yourselves, young man? Natsuki?"

"I'm sorry, Dad. We shouldn't have gotten home so late. Natsuki and I shouldn't have dragged Claire into this either."

"S-sorry for being so late..."

Martha, Claire's mother, also gave her own piece.

"You aren't scot free either young missy. Even before you ran into the other two, you already snuck out to the arcade without permission, AND you landed yourself in detention. Not only that, but to find out from Natsuki that you've been bullying poor Harold for over a year now? Your father and I didn't raise you to be that kind of girl!"

"Sorry, mama..."

'And I'm still very sorry for everything, Harold...' she inwardly thought while sneaking a peek at the boy who was also still being reprimanded alongside Natsuki by the Meyers.

Harold, Natsuki and Claire were currently in a scolding session from their parents.

Why? Well the major reason was that the trio was still out in the streets at the ungodly hour of 12:47am past midnight.

Needless to say, all three ended up being grounded even with Spade defending them.

Such was the true power of adult supervision. Truly, a force to be reckoned with.

 **-Chapter 8 END-**

* * *

 **A/N:** Okay so NEXT chapter is the damned bakery and slice-of-life out of school stuff. I forgot that I had to resolve the thing with Claire first. Le sigh.

See y'all in the next one!

 **EDIT:** Fixed several typos, and missing words.


	9. Chapter 9 - TWBTS

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the wonderful visual novel known as "Doki Doki Literature Club". That honor belongs solely to the legendary Dan Savlato and Team Salvato as a whole.

* * *

 **[Chapter 9 - The World Beyond The Screen]**

Yuri had been quite worried for several weeks now. Something had been greatly bothering her to no end, regarding one the members of their literature club.

A certain pink-haired member, specifically.

It had been a source of great stress for her, if the various black-colored ink marks on her right arm were any indication. Her entire right arm had been teeming with ink. Yuri had already been trying to stop from cutting herself with a knife, after being shown how detrimental it was to her safety. Thus, lately she had been doing the alternative of writing on her arm with a marker instead, for every time she'd get the urge to cut.

Natsuki was the one to save her from such destructiveness, as she was the one to suggest the marker-writing alternative to Yuri. Well, at least the Natsuki from before who wasn't acting weird yet.

She had been noticing it for a while now, but Natsuki wasn't really being her usual lively and animated self lately. Almost as if she was on auto-pilot mode or something. Like she was merely acting out lines from a script, very robotic-like.

Like none of it was real anymore. That's what it seemed to Yuri anyway.

When she asked Monika about it, the club president looked like she was very frightened, but then quickly composed herself and replied that she didn't know what Yuri was talking about. All while suspiciously muttering to herself about epiphanies and whatnot. Monika certainly acted like an oddball herself at times, but that was the norm for the club president. Yuri was already used to Monika making jarring references about some other world out there all the time. The other girl's poem titled "The Lady Who Knows Everything" was an example of such weirdness from Monika, in her opinion.

What she wasn't used to yet however, was how Natsuki started being so cold all of a sudden. She'd much rather have their usual quarreling over this crushing silence.

Yuri then turned to the vice president, Sayori. But she too had no idea about what was causing Natsuki to act unlike her usual hot-blooded self.

"I have no idea Yuri... she doesn't even bring cupcakes or cookies here anymore! And when I tried asking her, she just brushed me off..." Sayori sadly replied and Yuri nodded in understanding.

Then came this one time, when Yuri approached her about reading some manga for the first time ever with interest. Normally, the mere concept of Yuri actually being somewhat interested in her manga to begin with would cause very pronounced reactions from Natsuki. Seeing as how different their opinions were regarding it.

"Hey, N-Natsuki. I'm curious about those books of m-manga that you keep in the club's storeroom. C-can I borrow a volume or two for reading?"

Instead of any sort of surprised expression though, she only received a lukewarm "Sure, go ahead." from the girl. With a distinct lack of genuine emotion and care.

That was when she truly knew something was off with Natsuki. Yuri swore to herself that she would definitely find out what happened to her friend, she just needed to find any clue or hint as to what triggered this sudden change.

She hadn't exactly been getting along well with Natsuki, especially when it came to matters such as if manga counted as true literature or not, but she really cared for the girl.

Natsuki was a dear friend to her, and Yuri wanted to make sure that everything was okay.

If only Yuri knew what really happened to her friend, and where she truly was at the moment...

 *******The Color Pink*******

"And that's pretty much it, Natsuki. Don't worry my dear, you'll get the hang of it in no time!" Jonathan reassured the girl, as he left the store in her care along with Harold.

It was Friday afternoon, and classes had just finished. Since they were still grounded after the whole fiasco with Claire about a week ago, Harold and Natsuki had been expected to go straight home and then help with the family bakery.

"I'm still grounded too, it sucks!" Claire whined, as she walked towards the school gates with the pair.

"This is your fault, you annoyingly clingy she-demon. If you didn't have to be such a bi-"

Before another petty argument could start, Harold covered Natsuki's mouth and Claire merely sighed. It would take a while before Natsuki eventually learns to accept that Harold had buried the hatchet with the Hannigan.

Lexi had her cheerleading practice, so she had to stay late, while Tawna had gotten the flu. Hence why neither girl was with Claire as she went home.

"See you around Claire, my parents are waiting for me and Natsuki and I don't wanna get into any more trouble."

"See you later, cake boy. Once our punishment is lifted, we should go watch that new Pokemon movie!"

That was one thing that changed. Claire was now a lot more easygoing, and openly friendly with Harold and Natsuki. She also stopped doing the whole "school queen" gimmick, and became a lot more down-to-earth. It was obviously her original personality, and was only supressed for so long due to the role she had to play.

To say that Claire did a total 180 from her former bullying disposition, was a grossly huge understatement.

Obviously though, this meant that Claire had lost the respect she once possessed from some of her elitist peers, nevertheless she didn't really care if it meant being true to herself. Claire was friends with Harold now, and was free to act like a decent person without resorting to bullying anymore.

She was even prepared to be abandoned by Lexi and Tawna, but was happily surprised when they were actually glad that she patched things up with Harold. They were truly her best friends, and they stood by Claire after she reverted to her normal kind self.

"You're still calling me cake boy after everything?"

Sticking her tongue out cheekily, Claire gave him a thumbs up. "Yep! That's still my nickname for you, ahahahaha~!"

The Meyer could only sigh while trying to supress his grin, as he knew that in this case it was all friendly banter. They had truly buried the hatchet.

After parting ways with the Hannigan, and after getting home as well as resting for about twenty minutes along with a quick change of clothes for good measure, the Meyers decided that it was time to finally take Natsuki to the bakery.

Jonathan gave the girl an introduction on the stuff they used, and of course, Natsuki catched on pretty quickly due to her prior experience with baking inside of DDLC. She was pretty excited, and baking always made her happy so it was all good so far with the girl.

The real test however for Natsuki, was when the customers came in to order their bread.

The Meyer Family Bakeshop was one of the most popular bakeries in their city of Everdawn, and so the Meyers were able to sell their products to people from all walks of life.

Since it was already deep in the afternoon, a lot of their usual regulars had already gotten their share of bread for the day. But some still came by during these hours.

One example being Mrs. Jones, who always bought her daughter's favorite from the Meyers.

"Can I get the usual please?" Felicity Jones, a kind and petite woman in her early forties beckoned at the pair, and Harold prepared the food with a smile with Natsuki taking mental notes.

"Three orders of the garlic focaccia bread, coming right up. How's Celeste doing, is she okay Mrs. Jones?"

A look of sadness passed by quickly on Felicity's face before quickly being masked with a smile. "My daughter's doing fine, despite her condition. You know how it is, she always faces everything with a smile even though such a horrible illness just..."

Both Harold and Felicity had shared a faraway glance at the sky, with Natsuki silent at their exchange. She had an idea on what they were talking about based on context clues, making her feel bad for the daughter of the lady.

"Send her my regards, a lot of us at school still miss her." the Meyer consoles while handing over the bread.

"Thank you, Harold. I'll be going now, it's about time to pick up Celeste from her checkup after all." as she was about to leave however, she notices Natsuki's presence.

"A relative of yours, Harold?"

"Oh, that's right! This here is Natsuki, a friend of mine who's staying over in the meantime. Natsuki, this is Mrs. Jones, she's one of our regulars here and her daughter Celeste used to go to the same school as we do."

"N-Nice to meet you, Mrs. Jones." Natsuki greeted politely.

Smiling at the girl, the lady winked at Harold. "It was nice meeting you too, Natsuki."

More and more familiar faces to Harold showed up to get their daily fix of pastries and bread, and slowly but surely, Natsuki was getting the hang of social interaction. It made her heart swell up, and she was quite proud.

Of course, there were still some among their customers that asked for her autograph however, recognizing her to be the character from DDLC.

"Here you go, enjoy your day!" Natsuki chimes while handing over a bag of cream bread with her autograph on the packaging.

"You look cute when you smile, Natsuki."

And just like that, the girl was reduced to a stuttering tomato after receiving the unexpected compliment, reverting to her tsundere-based demeanor.

"S-stop saying such silly things so suddenly, Harold you dummy!" she whined while lightly punching the boy in the shoulder as the blush on her face grew hotter. Harold merely chuckled, amused by her friend.

He really did find her cute though. That much was certain. Although egging Natsuki on would surely mess up their dynamic again, and thus Harold decided that he would reign in the teasing for now.

Various people still came and went from their humble store, until one particular customer showed up that stirred something within Harold's gut, but he wasn't sure what exactly it was.

As if on cue with perfect timing as well, said customer appeared during the time when Natsuki had to go take a bathroom break for a bit, leaving Harold solely in charge of the bakery and in turn the one to receive the customer's order..

"I'd like to take two orders of the cream bread, please."

A boy, around his age by Harold's estimate, was his latest guest. He had black hair that had obviously been hastily combed, and deep, piercing cold-black eyes.

But what stood out the most to the Meyer, was how tired this boy looked. He wasn't haggard nor disheveled or anything, but his entire stature had an aura of fatigue in it. Maybe it was mostly mental-sided.

Almost as if this boy resonated with him, somewhat.

"Here you go sir! Two fresh pieces of our special cream bread!" Harold tried with a smile, and the boy thanked him with a barely-concealed sigh.

Harold decided to push his luck.

"Had a tiring day today mister..."

The boy then looked at Harold, and gave him a smile while replying. "The name's Izuna and yeah, you can say that. I'm visiting a relative in the area over a certain... matter."

Pleased that the now-named Izuna was willing to engage in conversation, Harold pressed on and continued.

"I see, so you aren't from around here then?"

"Nope, had to travel by train for quite some time. But knowing what lies ahead for me, the lengthy trip gave me some time to reflect on all the crazy stuff that's happened in my life."

Nodding, Harold could see that this Izuna may have gone through some interesting things recently. His tired look now made sense to the boy. "Sounds like quite a tale, my name's Harold by the way. Harold Meyer." he extended his hand and the other male gladly took it in his.

They shook hands with grins. "Izuna Takaya, and it was nice meeting you Harold. Maybe I could swing by again one time and we could hang out or something. It'd be nice having a friend here in this city."

"Agreed, let's exchange emails and numbers."

After they had given each other their contact info and talking about the various events that happened in their respective lives, although both of them had been omitting some of the details towards the other, Izuna bid the Meyer his farewell and went off to a certain dojo's location that he had told Harold about. Meanwhile, Natsuki had finally returned from the restroom to see Harold staring off at the distance.

"Something happened Harold?"

"Not really, just met an interesting fellow while you were on break, is all."

"Hmmmmm? Tell me about it?"

Harold stared at Natsuki. Her interested expression set his heart a-flutter. He thought at that very moment, 'This girl really is beautiful.'

"Sure thing, once we close up shop." Harold replied with a warm smile, which the girl returned in earnest as well.

They say that chance encounters happen every once in a while in your life. Such was the fateful meeting of Harold Meyer and Izuna Takaya. A new friendship had formed that day, and the Meyer hoped that he could meet the Takaya once more.

Little did Harold know however, that he'd be meeting Izuna again in the near future a bit sooner than he would've thought...

 **-Chapter 9 END-**

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, that just happened. Hurray for canon lore-branching! Anyways, see you all in the next chapter!


End file.
